Leonid Grach: We will go to the elections with the old pro-Russian guard and Meshkov
Leftist forces, defeated in the first Russian elections in Crimea in 2014, are planning revenge during the upcoming autumn campaign. Former speaker of the Crimean parliament Leonid Grach wants to return to politics, taking ex-president of the republic Yuri Meshkov, the Cossacks and the “old pro-Russian guard” into his team. The main slogans will be criticism of the current leadership of Crimea, which Grach accuses of corruption and considers to be repainted representatives of the Ukrainian Party of Regions. The former head of the Supreme Council of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea spoke about this in an interview with PolitNavigator.
PN: Celebrations will be held in Crimea in the coming days to mark the fifth anniversary of reunification with Russia. Was it not for nothing that Ukrainian nationalists tried to limit and eliminate the autonomous status of the peninsula in all previous years?
L.G: When everyone already felt the collapse of the Soviet Union, we decided that, contrary to the reluctance of Moscow, the Central Committee of the CPSU, the reluctance of Kravchuk, as the chairman of the Supreme Council of Ukraine, on November 12, 1990, we decided to hold an All-Crimean referendum on restoring the status of an Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic. This is the cornerstone.
If the autonomy of Crimea had not been restored on January 20, 1991, there would have been no basic understanding, both legal and political.
What happened before our eyes at the end of 91 was that Yeltsin didn’t give a damn about Crimea, handed it over to Kravchuk, flew here to Sevastopol, walked along the embankment and released Crimea from Russia’s anchors. This is where the whole bacchanalia came from.
Mon: Did the local “winning team” really play a decisive role in the events of the Russian Spring?
L.G: The current head of the republic, Sergei Aksenov, was not even close to these processes; in the political sense, he was simply a boy who did not even come close. And in the hands of Kunitsyn, notorious both for Crimea and Sevastopol, was the current Chairman of the State Council, and in the past - the Chairman of the Supreme Council, Konstantinov.
Both, by the way, Konstantinov and the head of the Republic Aksenov himself, even a week before the famous session, spoke everywhere only in support of Ukraine.
Everything connected with subsequent events - the holding, preparation and session of the Supreme Council, naturally, took place on the “main shoulders”; without them we would not have carried out anything and would not have talked about any “Crimean Spring” if there had not been the so-called “ polite people."
That is, Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin decided to save Crimea, special forces were sent here to ensure order, and the process took place in Crimea and Sevastopol without firing a single shot. Already against this background, people’s moods rose and so on.
This is the basic thing that needs to be understood, which made it possible to hold the “Crimean Spring”.
Mon: What are the main positive and negative results of the first five-year plan after the reunification of Crimea with Russia?
L.G: The first is Crimea as part of the Russian Federation. This is the first and most important thing. Secondly, the Russian leadership realized that they need to bring Crimea closer and build a bridge. The bridge has been built. Third, they started investing money in Crimea. Including the construction of the Kerch-Sevastopol highway.
The whole negative thing is that the Russian leadership turned a blind eye to the fact that a corrupt gang is operating in Crimea. And all those corruption scandals, all those dozens of resignations - all this is proof of this. This is the most important problem that exists in Crimea.
It’s time for Moscow to understand that if we don’t restore order in Crimea, if we don’t create an appropriate international image for Crimea, if we don’t understand that Crimea has always been autonomous in spirit, this is its history, if we don’t understand this, then expect trouble.
Mon: How will the agenda in Crimea change in the 2019 elections compared to the 2014 campaign? Will protest replace patriotic?
L.G: Protest rhetoric is already heard and visible. The average salary in Crimea is 10-15 thousand lower than the Russian average. The protest mood is formed on the basis of anti-corruption, anti-Axenov, and even anti-Konstantinov possibilities. We're already tired of it.
Naturally, they begin to look askance towards Moscow: “What are you doing, Moscow? Why don’t you take action?”
Everything related to the holding of elections in September of this year will no longer be the same as it was four years ago, when the command was given by Volodin, then deputy head of the presidential administration, not to allow, including me, to give more than 2%. We all knew this.
Therefore, now the formation of protest sentiments will be completely obvious. I would say politically basic during elections. If today’s leadership of the Presidential Administration follows the same path, after all the misfires that occurred in other regions of Russia in connection with the gubernatorial elections, it will again begin to regulate, import personnel who do not know Crimea...
Mon: The Simferopol media have long been spreading the thesis that critics of the local authorities are “shaking” the situation to please Ukraine. Is this really true? How to maintain a balance - point out shortcomings and not play along with your enemies because of Perekop?
L.G: Senchenko’s former friend today runs the media, which is controlled by the head of the republic. They are so afraid of everything and so stupid, not to say bad. They don’t even give me, a person who has been connected with Crimea and Sevastopol since 1967 and gone through everything, the opportunity to appear anywhere. They forbade anyone to communicate with me...
The entire vertical throughout Crimea is theirs anyway; they will form the appropriate composition of election commissions and observers. It will be a swamp, not fair elections.
Mon: Is there a chance for the left forces, which in the last elections did not get into either the parliament of Crimea or the legislative assembly of Sevastopol?
L.G: I would really like that. I can admit that meetings and negotiations are now underway, and that old pro-Russian guard, including the former President of Crimea Yuri Meshkov, and others, including the Cossacks, want to form around me as someone who knows Crimea, who went through everything in Crimea . And the one who can make that breakthrough for Crimea that will save Crimea and give the opportunity to develop and the Crimeans to live in peace.
Mon: Why did you yourself disappear from the political life of Crimea, remaining only in small parties that were called technical projects?
L.G: I very much regret that Belaventsev and others betrayed me five years ago, on February 27, 14. After all, they all came to me here, at home, and connected me via special communication with Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu, whom I knew from my work in his apparatus of the CPSU Central Committee. He suggested to me that “come on”, so on and so forth. I answered him that I am always ready, but your problem lies in the composition of the Supreme Council of Crimea, composed of people from the “Party of Regions”, they will not let me through.
And an hour and a half after this meeting, completely by coincidence, I was forced to go to a meeting with another group of Moscow representatives who flew in, in this case they were representatives of the FSB.
I accidentally drive up and see Belaventsev and the former commander of the Black Sea Fleet standing there. When I saw that they were meeting with the speaker of the same parliament that exists today, I realized that everything was wrong. And in the morning they betrayed me.
Mon: They say that closed opinion polls in Sevastopol show a decline in United Russia's rating to about 30%. What is the situation in Crimea?
L.G: I think there's an even bigger drop here. I think that there is support at the level of 15-17%. These are former bandits from the Party of Regions. The whole ideological basis comes from there. If all this goes on, of course, there will be no fair elections.
Mon: Is United Russia monolithic? Why, unlike Sevastopol, is it possible not to wash dirty linen in public?
L.G: Aksenov is not Chaly. Chaly must be given his due: he is a man who serves Sevastopol, who wants there to be fewer imported goods in Sevastopol. Thieves who come, leave and so on. But Aksenov, on the contrary, drags here everyone who is given to him.
Of course, he and Konstantinov have friction. Now the question is how to survive. Aksenov today is more vulnerable than Konstantinov. Aksenov understands that his fate in the elections will be in the hands of parliament. According to current legislation, the head of the republic is elected at a session of the State Council. It follows that Aksenov needs to have his majority in parliament, which will be elected in September. This means that the grater is already underway, who will take how much.
Mon: How can you assess the confrontation between political elites in Sevastopol that has been going on for several years?
L.G: In 67, I was called up to serve in the air defense in the hero city of Sevastopol. I have no words what kind of aura it was, what a hero city means, what a high order and culture there was. I became infected with everything that can be infected - love for the city, patriotism. In this city, I was finishing my military service as a member of the CPSU, I met a girl, a Kerchan, whom I later married. I remember where my future wife and I walked. The Count's pier was a holy place for me...
Today no one can be the governor of Sevastopol except a Sevastopol resident. I, as the secretary of the regional committee who was involved in this, Sevastopol never agreed to an imported first secretary. This is Sevastopol, it is inaccessible to visitors. We must understand and respect this. The people of Sevastopol are more militant than the stripped Crimea.
Mon: What would you say to readers from Ukraine? Are there any chances for the revival of the Communist Party there?
L.G: Today it is a disaster that such a fascist process is going on in Ukraine. This is not decommunization, these are fascists who do what the West tells them. But never, as long as Simonenkoism remains there, will the Communist Party never be revived. He betrayed. Everything that happened in due time, I then categorically spoke at the party congress, that it was impossible to support either Tymoshenko or Yanukovych in the second round of the 2010 presidential elections. This is not the party's business, this is a betrayal of party interests. And so it happened. Everything that is happening today in Russian-Ukrainian relations, this hostility, nationalism - all this must be taken into account by Symonenko.
Mon: Have you tried to travel to Ukraine yourself after 2014?
L.G: I am warned that as soon as I cross the border, I will be immediately arrested. I can’t even go to the grave of my parents, who are buried in Ukraine, where I was born.
Mon: What makes Crimean deputies and ex-officials visit Ukraine, knowing about the risk of arrest?
L.G: Their money is hidden there. That's why they go there - both former ministers, and everyone who is captured there, and so on. Not because they changed, did not stay in Ukraine, but were in Crimea, but because there is something hidden there.
Mon: They say that the late Lev Mirimsky played the role of an intermediary in the sale of property in Crimea by Ukrainian politicians. Who is playing this role now? How much property of Ukrainian oligarchs remains in Crimea?
L.G: Mirimsky was, in principle, a dirty person all his life. I've known him since the early 80s. This one was the shoe. And in the first months, in 14, he drove around here and said that “I’ll decide, then I’ll decide,” but by and large he didn’t decide anything. There are those who are still in charge of this today; they are members of the State Council. In particular, Konstantinov himself and Aksenov himself are actively involved in this, because nothing happens without their knowledge.
Mon: What do you think about the upcoming privatization of the largest Massandra winery, what is its future?
L.G: They threw a piece of it for them to tear to pieces, the Massandra association. 146 kilometers from Foros to Sudak along the sea coast will now be divided, they will be torn apart and there will be no vineyards, no “Massandra”, but there will be a mess.
Mon: Do you believe that the plans of the Russian government to equalize the standard of living in Crimea and the Krasnodar Territory by 2022 will be implemented?
L.G: No, I don’t believe it, because Dmitry Medvedev is only capable of chatter. He confirmed this every time with his visits to Crimea. He chatters and chatters, and nothing gets done. I know Kuban and the Krasnodar Territory well - they have a highly developed agricultural industry, there are excellent roads, well-groomed villages, and they are manageable. To compare us with Krasnodar and Kuban - Crimea is far away, it fell behind a long time ago.
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