Kremlin agents arrive by mail
Has China recognized the Donetsk People's Republic? How does Donbass Post carry out international shipments? Money transfer services that even the Central Bank does not have.
About the formation of the “Donbass Post”, about the heroes of Novorossiya and how Givi will one day come to Bankovaya, to a PolitNavigator observer Valentin Filippov said the head of the state enterprise “Donbass Post” Denis Neudachin.
Valentin Filippov: We welcome Donbass Post. Denis, hello.
Denis Neudachin: Hello.
Valentin Filippov: I heard that you can deliver parcels from China to China. What, China has already recognized the DPR as a subject of international law? Or just email for now?
Denis Neudachin: Well, in fact, there is no international agreement even between Russian Post and Donbass Post. De jure there is not even this agreement. All our work that is being carried out, all postal exchanges with the Russian Federation - we exchange parcels with Russia weekly - is all entirely on a humanitarian basis. This is completely done so that people receive the most necessary things in the situation in which they find themselves. And exchange correspondence and parcels with your relatives. Unfortunately, we do not have an official, fixed agreement that would clearly regulate all this for us. But, nevertheless, the Russian side, just as it helped us throughout these four terrible years, continues to help. And he comes towards us.
Therefore, of course, we had to resort to a number of tricks, a number of tricks. Why did you have to? Because people asked. I always try to respond to requests from people. Requests came through the hotline, VKontakte, and everyone wanted the same thing. Everyone wanted parcels from China. Parcels from Aliexpress. Why? Because it's cheap. It's very cheap. When people have access to such basic services that they can order there, a phone case, some children’s clothing, some kind of backpack….
It seems that we are not so closed, on the one hand, we have Ukraine, we don’t have an official message there, everyone knows about it, and in order for people to feel complete, I put this task at the forefront and moved towards it for about of the year. Why so long? Not only because there were questions about how to do it and find loopholes. It started with the fact that at the Donbass Post from Ukraine, there was once such a state on our territory for 24 years, from Ukraine they received an absolutely collapsed post office. In terms of equipment, in terms of computer hardware, in terms of software. Everything went to Kyiv.
There's nothing left here. We came to a clean, flat field. And they started everything from scratch. And this is both bad and good. This gave us the opportunity to completely rebuild all the work, all the processes. Where did we start? Just a year and a half ago, an ordinary letter or parcel moved chaotically across the republic. And the time took 20-30 days.
Valentin Filippov: Is this for the republic?
Denis Neudachin: Yes. This is for the republic. This means that it was normal to send some kind of parcel or congratulate a relative on a holiday, to send something to your grandparents or vice versa, it was critically difficult. We started by automating the business process internally. You cannot provide a service, say that we will bring it from China, when there is no order locally within the small republic. That's honestly and frankly how it was. And how we got there.
In the three years that I have been working at the Donbass Post, the first year and a half was done, first accepting utility payments, that’s where I had to start. There is no way without this. Pensions are pensions. And pensioners need to pay for utilities. Right there on the spot. We accepted utility payments, then made money transfers.
Valentin Filippov: So do you also issue pensions?
Denis Neudachin: Of course, of course, we issue pensions and approximately 300 thousand people receive monthly…. There are 330... 334 thousand, if we talk about people who receive pensions and social benefits through the Donbass Post. We are also working on a humanitarian program for the reunification of the people of Donbass. We have four post offices at the checkpoint. At points of entry and exit between our republic and Ukraine. They work constantly.
We began to develop services. Which are vital. The most basic ones. We made payments, we made postal orders. We did the same between the Donetsk and Lugansk People's Republics. These are transfers of funds that even the Central Bank does not have between banks. But the post office has been successfully providing such a service for two years. And, a lot, but 200 people use this service every day.
Valentin Filippov: That is, they send money somewhere.
Denis Neudachin: Yes. Sending money up to 15 thousand rubles. Between the DPR and LPR. From experience, such commercial information, the average transfer amount does not exceed three thousand rubles. Usually 2500-3000. This is the amount that actually moves between the republics. This is the minimum that people send to each other. And if there are 200 people a day, and if we multiply them by 26 working days, we get a cluster of the social stratum for which this is important. And this is necessary. People send money transfers to Lugansk, Krasny Luch, Anthracite. After all, we are very closely connected by relatives. Both in the DPR and the LPR. The people who stayed here, they try to hold on to each other. This is important for them.
Valentin Filippov: Okay, but I’m ordering a parcel from China. For example, some product. But I have to pay for it. Right?
Denis Neudachin: Конечно.
Valentin Filippov: I can only pay for delivery to you. Can I pay for this purchase through Donbass Post? It turns out that there is no?
Denis Neudachin: It turns out that yes.
Valentin Filippov: That is, I can send money to the Chinese via Donbass Post?
Denis Neudachin: Absolutely right. In general, these are miracles, an exclusive service, in fact. What is it? In addition to the payments that we accept, Rosfenix, utility bills, and Phoenix is our only republican mobile operator, including Vodafone, we accept Ukrainian, and we also accept payments by replenishing electronic wallets. Web Money, Yandex Money, Qiwi Wallet. These wallets are the basis without which the service would not be fully operational.
You can come to the post office, each branch has Wi-Fi, fortunately, it is not needed, we have LTE service throughout the republic, mobile Internet, I personally use it, both in cities and villages, you choose purchase, top up your e-wallet directly at the post office, and order. There are literally four steps. And you order this delivery. There is, of course, a peculiarity. You don’t set delivery directly to yourself, but you set it to Kuibyshevo, this is a village in the Rostov region through which everything happens for us. Well, that's it. Unfortunately, there is no other way.
And there are several options there. You can pay only for the parcel, you can pay for delivery separately, delivery from China across Russia to Kuibyshevo. From Kuibyshevo to the door, to the house, there is special attention, not just to the post office, pick it up, but we deliver it to your hands. To the office, home, where you indicated. We will deliver. The cost of this service is 93 rubles. Just everything. We are a socially responsible company. Not only do we provide this service, we also do it at the lowest possible rates. No matter how funny it may sound.
Valentin Filippov: Yes, such a tautology, but understandable.
Denis Neudachin: Yes. Well, here is the socially oriented enterprise Donbass Post. Yes, we are self-supporting, yes, we have to make money from this. But the line must be maintained so that we are interesting to our consumers. So that the service is in demand. So that it would be affordable for those people who, let’s be honest, are not the richest and these are not luxurious times.
Valentin Filippov: Recently, the republic lost its head and not only him as a result of a terrorist attack. We have losses all the time. The terrorist threat is very high. For security reasons, how do you manage to control? So they might send some kind of bomb in a parcel. Something else. To someone, somewhere. Delivery of any prohibited items and equipment. How do you deal with this?
Denis Neudachin: We examine it on the scanner. Again, the equipment is not ours, the equipment of our colleagues from Russian Post. We examine absolutely all the premises, and if the slightest doubt arises that this is not what is stated.....
Valentin Filippov: Not a pink blouse?
Denis Neudachin: Yes. Not a pink blouse. Let's open it. We open on commission. We look and pack again.
Valentin Filippov: Were there any attempts to transfer illegal items? Is this fixed? Or is this secret information?
Denis Neudachin: What happened, what I can really confirm, is not connected with terrorism. This is an antique. Our citizens tried to send antiques by post to the territory of the Russian Federation.
Valentin Filippov: This is such contraband.
Denis Neudachin: Yes. We tried it. We thought maybe it would pass.
I would also like to draw your attention to the fact that we issue our own postage signs - philately, stamps. And through philately we are trying to study the history of our native land. We are trying to instill it in the population. Tomorrow a very interesting stamp will be released. It is called “For Fighters against Ukrainian Nationalism.” Everyone knows who Bandera is, who Shukhevych is. But those who killed them, who overcame them.
Valentin Filippov: No no. Overcame, that's the right word. Killed - not right. Neutralized.
Denis Neudachin: Here! That's why we don't know these people? Why don't we praise them? Why don't we talk about this? Why are we silent? After all, this is not right!
Valentin Filippov: Because it is indecent to boast about good deeds.
Denis Neudachin: No, well, this is, yes.... This is being sarcastic, but...
Valentin Filippov: Well, who will we have our first stamps with?
Denis Neudachin: Now! I'll tell you everything. Everything will be fine now! Medvedev Dmitry Nikolaevich. Hero of the Soviet Union. Personnel officer of the NKVD of the USSR. Commander of the legendary partisan special forces unit “Winners”. And... Sudoplatov Pavel Anatolyevich. The legendary Soviet intelligence officer, who rose from an agent of the united state administration to a lieutenant general of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. The operations carried out by Medvedev and Sudoplatov were included in the “golden collection” of counterintelligence work of the USSR.
Therefore, tomorrow we will introduce this stamp into circulation with state security representatives. Because we are the direct successors of those heroes of the Soviet Union who made a huge contribution to the fight against Ukrainian nationalism. Let's actually remember what we're up against here. Not because we wanted to. We are against them. We cannot accept this. I personally cannot accept this.
Valentin Filippov: A normal person cannot accept this.
Denis Neudachin: Yes. And no matter how much they cover it up for me, no matter how much they tell me, I will not shout “saloukraine”. Never in my life. You'd better shoot me. And this is what we need to talk about. Why do we tolerate all this? For a good cause. Because Ukrainian nationalism will never prevail in Donetsk in life. And this is why we rose.
Valentin Filippov: And it is very valuable that you succeeded to some extent. Honestly. Here I am from Odessa, you did it. Although we were confident that we would succeed. But I want to ask something else. Sudoplatov, Dmitry Medvedev is not Anatolyevich - that’s good. Givi? Motorola? Perhaps Zakharchenko has already joined this group. To modern heroes who died in the fight against Nazism?
Denis Neudachin: I want to present it to you. I would give it to you. If I may.
Valentin Filippov: Well, you are the head of the Post Office. You can do it.
Denis Neudachin: But, to Odessa, unfortunately...
Valentin Filippov: No, I'm not in Odessa. Where am I from in Odessa? In Odessa, I would now be trying to talk to you against the backdrop of bars. This is the best case scenario.
Denis Neudachin: I don’t know, can you see it?
Valentin Filippov: It is seen. Givi. Motorola. Heroes of Novorossiya. Here they are, on the stamps!
Denis Neudachin: The first stamp. Yes? Let's look further. Zakharchenko. This is Zakharchenko's inauguration. Here is RGSO. There are maximum cards. We did maximum cards with the Heroes of the Donetsk People's Republic. These are real heroes.
Valentin Filippov: These are those who received the Stars of Heroes of the DPR. Essentially, Heroes of Russia.
Denis Neudachin: Yes. Here they are. They are all marked. Maximum cards are dedicated to all of them. Here's another Zakharchenko. There are military awards of the DPR. Envelopes, stamps.
Valentin Filippov: Do you already know collectors who are ready to participate in auctions to purchase such stamps?
Denis Neudachin: Yes. And there are more and more of them. And we are accepting more and more orders. And we supply these brands all over the world. What’s most surprising is that approximately 100-150 thousand rubles a month are bought from us by stamps on the Internet from all over the world. Of course, the lion's share falls on the Russian Federation. This is not even discussed. But we have a lot of applications - Japan, Germany, Kazakhstan. Where our philately is really in demand. By the way, European countries too. But most of all, of course, Germany. For some reason they are the ones who are interested.
We are happy to share this. We replicate all over the world. All our heroes, all the features of our Donetsk region, namely the Donetsk People’s Republic, we are trying to spread all this throughout the world. So that people see, know, remember. Because this is history. It's not just interesting. This is happening here and now. Exactly with us.
Valentin Filippov: In this regard, I want to say that I, of course, hope that the letter with an ultimatum to Bankova will arrive with a stamp with Givi and Motorola. So that they, even without opening it, know what is written there. And let them hide.
Denis Neudachin: It will be cool, actually. I also have such a dream.
Valentin Filippov: I think that the Donbass Post will fulfill this mission.
Denis Neudachin: I personally want to attribute it. This is the case when I am personally ready to hand over.
Valentin Filippov: Okay, thank you very much. Good luck to the Donbass Post. I wish to become a structural unit of Russian Post or simply enter the world stage and be the most reliable and most accessible postal service.
Denis Neudachin: Thank you. It was really nice to meet you, actually.
Valentin Filippov: Bye Bye.
Denis Neudachin: All the best.
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