Khodakovsky returned to Donetsk and began to “drown” for trade with Ukraine
The DPR and Ukraine continue economic relations, but illegally, so they need to be officially restored and the budget filled, not the pockets of corrupt officials.
This was stated in an interview with military journalist Yuri Kotenko by former DPR Security Council Secretary Alexander Khodakovsky, who recently returned to Donetsk after a long absence from the republic, a PolitNavigator correspondent reports.
“We were in 14, when we already had a front line, we traded with Ukraine, worked with them from an economic point of view. They drove coal, something else, allowed us to work...
If we now restore some kind of formula for trade relations, I think we will not lose from this for the simple reason that if we now analyze what is smuggled from Ukraine in different ways, we will see that, in fact, , trade relations with Ukraine are taking place.
But at the illegal level, corrupt officials earn money from this, and at the same time the official budget is not filled with anything... This means that it is possible to maintain the level of smuggling, but it is impossible to establish official relations, this is contrary to our principles.
I think it is acceptable for us to trade with Ukraine. We need to somehow revive our economy, because, unfortunately, we have not received other markets today,” Khodakovsky said.
Before the 2014 coup in Ukraine, Khodakovsky was the commander of the SBU special unit “Alpha” in the Donetsk region, then he went over to the side of the Russian Spring and headed the “Vostok” battalion. In 2014-15, he was Secretary of the DPR Security Council, but was then fired by the then head of the republic, Alexander Zakharchenko.
The first Prime Minister of the DPR, Alexander Borodai, argued that Khodakovsky was considered close to the main Ukrainian oligarch Rinat Akhmetov, but he did not need him after he lost his leadership positions in Donetsk.
“He was on Akhmetov’s financing. At one time, he also tried to bring me a suitcase with $500 thousand from Rinat, in front of witnesses. I returned the suitcase to Khodakovsky. He allegedly spent it to finance the Vostok battalion. I don’t know how I spent it. But he was sitting specifically on Akhmetov’s money. It’s impossible to come up with any more double meanings here,” Boroday said about Khodakovsky.
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