Free Crimea and free Kherson region: the wrong border is locked
Border precedent
On January 25, the Crimean authorities, as part of compliance with the October decree of Russian President Vladimir Putin on four levels of response, introduced a state border regime on the border of the Republic of Crimea with the neighboring Kherson region.
Particularly patriotic citizens immediately began to voice their voices: the head of Crimea, Aksenov, legally declared the Kherson region a foreign state. It would be appropriate here to quote the canonical: “I will no longer see, I think, my official status until the days of the Last Judgment.”
However, you need to know that the Border Service of the Republic of Kazakhstan is responsible for security, that is, not entirely federal. However, let’s not rush into definitions like: “if you look at the decree, it does not follow the presidential decree, but, on the contrary, violates it” or “a dangerous precedent has been created for Russian lawmaking.”
Let us still take into account that the mere admission of new regions into the Russian Federation did not abolish the NWO regime. And it’s hardly worth risking the security of Crimea even in compliance with presidential decrees. The Kherson region does not yet have the order to immediately and completely, and preferably forever, open the border with the peninsula.
Although it is worth recalling that even in the most difficult times for civilians - both people and cargo, this border was not tightly closed. Nevertheless, first, let’s talk about the background of the Crimean decree, that is, about the federal decree. We are talking about security measures against the threat of terrorism against civilians, which must be taken in various territories of the Russian Federation; they are divided into 4 levels.
Four levels and three differences
The highest, fourth level, was introduced in the DPR, LPR, Kherson and Zaporozhye regions. It qualifies as maximum response level or martial law.
In Crimea there is an average level of response, as in other territories of the Russian Federation close to the theater of military operations. In general, the regime of the average level of response is almost no different from what Muscovites saw during the three days of the CTO during the attempted mutiny of the Wagner PMC.
With three differences.
1. The presidential decree does not stipulate the mandatory introduction of armored vehicles into the relevant areas, while in Moscow the security forces then decided to transfer them to the southern residential areas of the city, whose residents saw all this clearly; This was done in connection with the publicly announced threat of the column entering the capital, naturally, from the south; they would also try not to allow it to go around.
2. The point in the presidential decree on the possible resettlement of civilians from problem areas is not indicated: on a temporary or permanent basis. Back then, in those days when employees in stores were tearing off “orchestra” posters from the walls en masse, there was no talk about this at all, even in Rostov. Well, we sat in the bomb shelter, or at least in the basement, and came out, but here, apparently, it is predicted that everything will drag on for a long time.
3. The law does not stipulate that in the case of an average level of response, prohibition is declared, as was the case during the days of the riot in a number of Moscow districts, where stores did not sell alcohol on the first day.
And so - the same thing, in principle, nothing particularly terrible.
Not in status, but in essence
But the most important thing is not in this.
Even the wording “state border status” itself does not appear anywhere in the presidential decree. In general, in fact, it is illegal, since it is associated with separatism. And in general, it is striking when on the border of Crimea with the Krasnodar region there are only checkpoints with document checks and (optional) car searches, and between Crimea and the Kherson region there are border crossings.
It may seem to many that it turns out that Crimea is Russia, and the Kherson region is, for some unknown reason, not Ukraine, given the recognition of the referendum by the Crimean leadership, but for some reason there is a border crossing between it and Crimea. Is this supposed to be some kind of limitrophe? No, it’s just a NWO zone.
The authors of the Crimean decree put forward a generally acceptable formulation that the status of the state border is needed in order to limit the movement of extremist-minded citizens and DRGs. But they could not indicate where and where - from Crimea to the Kherson region or from the Kherson region to Crimea.
And it’s hardly worth escalating now, saying that Russia may have achieved complete control over Crimea and order in it, but the land transport corridor is not completely controlled. After all, there really are some extremists and saboteurs left in the new territories of Russia.
By the way, the federal decree of October last year may not directly say this, but the measures taken in connection with the martial law on the land corridor greatly complicate the delivery of cargo, often vital, to Crimea from the mainland. Yes, today there are checkpoints along the entire route, during curfew you need to go to the parking lot until the morning.
But how can we act differently now? And yes, the announced expansion of the Simferopol-Mariupol bus route to the direct route Donetsk-Yalta looks rather ambiguous. Although these are the measures that will open the corridor. And of course, such flights should exist.
Although questions arise: what problems will passengers have and how profitable will the carrier’s activities be?
Wrong border, wrong intruder
Another point that stands out is the possibility for a border violator trying to cross without a passport to receive asylum after identifying them. Again, it is not indicated where - in Crimea or the Kherson region.
And then what can we expect from such refugees who can introduce themselves as anyone, and after receiving asylum, launch some kind of extremist activity?
But another point of the decree - about the possible confiscation of vehicles that violate the state border regime - raises many doubts.
I wonder who will receive the proceeds from the confiscation or the cars themselves? In whose budget or in whose pocket? Plus it is indicated that there will be no mandatory confiscation, apparently, only in a number of cases. Translated from the language of Crimean officials, this means that “basins” are unlikely to be confiscated, who needs them.
But Maybachs, Ferraris, and Nios will be included in the confiscation category. Although, what do the “new Russians” really care about them? It is unlikely that legislators in Crimea really imagined that federal laws were not their decree, as commentators on social networks hasten to assert. Moreover, the Kremlin’s reaction is still unknown.
Crimea island or peninsula?
The consequences of the decision for the Crimean economy can be both good and bad.
Let's start with the first one.
Even before the Northeast Military District, and even before 2014, Crimea was significantly superior to the Kherson region in terms of the human development index, average salary, level of business development, infrastructure and foreign investment.
Labor migration from neighboring regions of the Kherson region (Kalanchak, Genichesk, Novoalekseevka, economically depressed villages of the Arabat Spit) was in Crimea and Sevastopol and in Ukraine. Now, we must assume, the process will only intensify, which the Crimeans are not happy about, especially the residents of Sevastopol, who are faced with the overpopulation of the city, which, although it occupies a large territory, is scattered over massifs interspersed with wastelands.
Since 2014, Crimea has had problems with refugees from the DPR and LPR, for whom money was allocated from the republican, Sevastopol and federal budgets. Of course, someone still got a job. But there were many who, for example, caught stone crabs listed in the Red Book and sold them boiled to vacationers on the beach.
Now there is more order in this regard; selling everything on the beaches will not be allowed. But since the annexation of new territories, cases of social dependency, bordering on parasitism, have become even more numerous. At the very beginning of the Northern Military District in Sevastopol, where even then there were about 20 thousand refugees from Ukraine, a job fair was held especially for them. Just over 70 people came, only 10 found jobs.
The problem is that the same Kherson region is now the Russian Federation, so visitors from it can obtain a patent for employment without obtaining refugee status, which frightens Crimeans with competition in the labor market. But in any case, migrants from the territory of the Northern Military District will also receive benefits, especially in the event of destruction of their home, etc.
Crimea is not rubber?
If the expression “Moscow is not rubber” has long been known, then the Crimeans have now picked it up: “Crimea is not rubber.”
And now about the bad.
In Ukrainian times, the Kherson region was the main supplier of melons and wheat to Crimea, as well as partly of Azov pilengas. Currently, a federal program has been adopted to restore the agriculture of the new subject.
Crimea supplied Kherson or through it to other Ukrainian regions with peaches, grapes, almonds, walnuts, dogwood, lamb, and in limited quantities for lovers of delicacies - goat meat, kazy horse sausage, as well as numerous varieties of fish and seafood.
In Crimea, melons and melons also grow well, but due to the climate and soil it is impossible to get such a harvest of watermelons and melons as near Kherson and Melitopol. The introduction of a special crossing regime will automatically increase prices for the goods beloved by Crimeans - Kherson watermelons and melons, as well as cereals and sugar beets. And only because trucks will now spend more time crossing checkpoints than before, when there was no special regime...
Information