How on Deribasovskaya the raiders from “Svoboda” captured “Bolshaya Moskovskaya”
You know, young man, it turns out that there are cases when you feel with particular force two characteristic features of current life in Ukraine. The complete incapacity of all branches of government and the no less absolute idiocy of those who were the driving force behind the coup called the “revolution of dignity.” Just listen!
Last Wednesday. On March 21, in broad daylight, representatives of the youth wing of the neo-Nazi “Svoboda” - the Sokol organization - calmly seized an architectural monument - the building of the Bolshaya Moskovskaya Hotel, located in the very heart of Odessa, on Deribasovskaya, opposite the City Garden. Deputy The chairman of the local Tyagnibokov organization, Konstantin Vasilets, said that, they say, they are returning the hotel to Odessa residents, making it publicly accessible. For some reason, no one asked a common question: why do city residents need free access to a building that has been externally restored but not finished inside?
But this is only the smallest of a series of amazing absence of a natural and logical reaction of those in power to obvious lawlessness. After all, the seizure took place without the slightest resistance from the security, and - with the Olympic calm of the police, the prosecutor's office and the authorities - both city and regional. But, the most incredible thing is that the legal owner, the owner of the construction and restoration company Inkor Group, Ruslan Tarpan, who has owned the object since the end of the last century, remained silent like a fish on ice. Moreover, the owner, who invested huge amounts of money in the reconstruction and restoration of the masterpiece of Russian Art Nouveau of the early twentieth century. And only the turmoil of 2014 prevented him from completing the interior decoration of the hotel, which should have had a five-star rating!
Other fellow journalists quickly characterized the incident as a “raiding.” But what kind of raiding is that? After all, this already familiar phenomenon is certainly accompanied by the presentation of court decisions, and at least some kind of confrontation between the parties, sometimes leading to bloodshed. Here there is complete calm on all sides. There is no sight of a predatory applicant armed with papers with stamps, no bailiffs and other indispensable entourage to which everyone has become accustomed. Mr. Tarpan finally deigned to respond to what was happening only three days later, last Saturday. His statement states that the Svoboda members intend to stage a provocation - an imitation of an assault on a seized facility by “titushki” who will act on behalf of the owners. He believes that this is being used to discredit both his company, in order to accuse it of pandering to the “separatists,” and the city authorities, led by Mayor Gennady Trukhanov. And - he categorically denies such actions, promising to resort exclusively to legal methods of returning his property. But where are they?! After all, it would be natural to immediately contact the police and prosecutor’s office with an equally lightning-fast reaction from the security forces! However, neither immediately after the capture, nor now, we heard anything about such absolutely logical measures.
So what really happened, and who benefits? Let's try to figure it out.
I’ll say right away: the motive of “disinterestedly returning its property to the city” can be dismissed right away. All the rattling phrases of the Svoboda leader about “saving the building,” which is supposedly in danger of destruction, like the “Russov House” and the “Masonic House,” have no basis. Yes, indeed, the Russov house is another masterpiece of Odessa architecture, which for many years belonged to the same Mr. Tarpan, having survived two fires, is now in a deplorable state, threatening complete destruction. But the city did sue it, and intends to restore it as municipal property. And the hotel is just outwardly brought into a quite presentable form. Albeit with some changes to the top floor. And it’s up to the owner to decide how and when to complete the interior decoration.
And everyone knows that “patriotic actions” by “Svoboda” members and other “activists” of a neo-Nazi persuasion, as a rule, are ordered, paid for things. Raiding and brawls in the right places are their current bread. And here we see a very clever scheme, clearly not conceived by national radicals. On the one hand, this is a blow to Tarpan and his Inkor Group, who have recently been subjected to constant attacks and accusations from competitors who have adapted to the new government and want to eliminate a strong figure from the field. The radicals are happy and not without profit to harm him. After all, it was at his expense that the monument to Empress Catherine and her associates, the founders of the city they so dream of destroying, was restored.
On the other hand, an indirect, insidious blow is dealt to the even more hated mayor Trukhanov, who could not be removed from his post. And, judging by the fact that sweeping accusations against him of “ordering” this idiotic action were made on the Dumskaya website, owned by the renegade deputy Goncharenko, discrediting the city authorities is one of the goals. And it doesn’t matter at all that the mayor’s office would never expose itself so stupidly, and if it really wanted to, it would resort to proven judicial methods. It’s important to at least somehow cast a shadow on it. Although, the method is clumsy. After all, it is ridiculous to blame the city authorities for the lack of counteraction to lawlessness, knowing that the police and other security forces do not obey them.
Looking at all this, you understand: without any doubt, approval for the next “patriotic act” was given from above. At least at the level of the governor, and even in Kyiv. After all, the complete inaction of the police, who recently received a slap for suppressing riots in the City Garden, when extremists stormed the Summer Theater, has taught them to be surprisingly tolerant of hooligan gangs of “activists,” whose leader, Sergei Sternenko, was personally redeemed from the pre-trial detention center by Governor Maxim Stepanov, paying for his bail. So they, our policemen, need to expose their heads both to the mauling of the pogromists and to the rude shouts of the Kyiv authorities? The prosecutor's office behaves similarly, looking at its boss, with his experience of imprisonment and lack of specialized education. Not to mention respect for the law.
In general, one can understand the long silence of the owner of the “repressed” building. After all, it is possible that all these days he was forced to negotiate with the invaders (or their customer?), fearing an elementary defeat. Or even arson of the hotel if it is stormed. But apparently they didn’t get along.
This is how we live – on the beautiful façade of architect Vlodek’s masterpiece dangle neo-Nazi standards and rags with inscriptions promising Odessa residents free access to the unfinished building. And yesterday evening, during the next march of neo-Nazis in memory of the famous lawless leader Sashka Bilyo, who was killed four years ago, all sorts of pyrotechnics were blazing on the balconies of the Bolshaya Moskovskaya, threatening to destroy the hotel. Some outcasts and lumpen commemorated the memory of another, and the hotel, bearing the proud name of the Mother See, trembled from the cries of those who vainly dream of capturing Moscow. Of course, “a fool gets rich with thoughts,” but does the Kiev junta really not understand that by encouraging elementary disdain for private property, it is completely ruining its positions? After all, on the one hand, all talk about the “investment attractiveness” of both Ukraine and Odessa collapses after such incidents. Well, what kind of idiot would invest money where a crowd of street loudmouths can easily break into private property and set up their lair there with the full connivance of the authorities? Not to mention the upcoming “Humorina”, which opens the holiday season. On the other hand, even the most loyal citizens are losing the last remnants of trust in the regime. After all, if today you can snatch away a wealthy businessman’s property, then why won’t it be possible to “requisition” your car or pants from your apartment tomorrow?!
And how does the current regime differ from the numerous former occupiers who captured both Ukraine and Odessa? Are they really just “national and European ideas” that turn into more robberies? Or – also blatant, stupid greed and inability to even restore external order?
Well, there were a lot of them here under different flags. And everyone was blown away by the mighty winds of history. Both order and law will sooner or later return to our long-suffering city. I wish I could live!
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