Why am I returning to the frontline Crimea
...For five months I have not been in the Capital, in my hometown, which lives brightly and boldly 24 hours a day. Probably, there is no need to say that this is a separate universe, existing according to its own physical laws, which are not always easy to understand and accept for those who seek permanent residence here. It’s one thing to come on an excursion, and another thing to live constantly, or rather work hard. There are many opportunities, temptations and a completely different outlook on life, including the SVO. Let's not forget that the level of education and sophistication in the capital is much higher than in many other regions, and this has happened historically, so there are more people here who can at least think...
Living in Crimea, in Feodosia, I see and hear military planes and helicopters every day, and in 9 months I got used to it. You already treat the angels of heaven and their machines calmly and with understanding, understanding that they flew on missions, and in your heart you wish them a calm return home.
For me personally, Ukraine has long become an adversary, an enemy, and my trips to Donbass in 2015 showed the whole essence of the Kyiv regime, which bombed peaceful cities, the civilian population cruelly and in large numbers. I have long proposed to build a huge fence on the border and prohibit Russians from owning Ukrainian passports, but, alas, the Crimean so-called politicians did not fully understand what they were doing when they pushed and legalized the idea of two passports.
Crimea is truly a front-line zone, as Sergei Aksyonov said back in the summer, but somehow we didn’t really feel it until the summer with the exception of the closed Simferopol airport, and military flights over us. But when the cruiser Moscow was destroyed, when Novofedorovka and other targets were hit, then many people began to understand what was happening. The explosion of the Crimean Bridge finally brought the Crimeans to their senses, and we will no longer be able to live relaxed, especially after leaving Kherson and enemy troops approaching the borders of Crimea.
The blow to the Crimean Bridge was very painful for me personally, since I was at all stages of its construction, and for me it is more than an infrastructure facility. This is a symbol of reunification with Russia, no less important, and perhaps more so, than the lost flagship of the Black Sea Fleet.
Summer, sea, lots of tourists, cheap Kherson watermelons and vegetables, all this created the illusion of prosperity and gave hope, but inside we were compressed, we felt that the threat was nearby, we were afraid of provocations and sabotage. With the beginning of mobilization, the feeling of anxiety increased, and this is a normal reaction to what is happening. It was amazing that on the very first day, some indigenous people rushed in cars from Crimea, and some hid in the mountains, coming home at night to wash and eat. This became a Crimean reality that was no longer possible not to notice.
There was a summer season in Crimea, but it was undermined by the organization of railway logistics. As a result, many facilities performed 30-50% worse than last year, and the prospects for the next season are unclear. My forecast is a maximum of 30-40% of the results of the outgoing year, which means, if not a disaster, then very bad.
The key factors for Crimean tourism are logistics, and, of course, the issue of security. The risks have grown significantly, and it’s hard to deny; trenches are being dug in the north of the peninsula, and this is just the beginning, and with Zelensky’s visit to Kherson, the situation has become a triangle squared.
I left Crimea for Moscow on October 23, and closed the swimming season on the 19th, having completed an almost kilometer-long swim. The beach was empty, but when I boarded the train, I was amazed at the number of passengers on the platform in Vladislavovka, near Feodosia. The travelers were Moscow pensioners, whose social vouchers provided some sanatoriums with a stable, year-round income. There are not very many of them, but at least there is something in the off-season. My three fellow travelers in the compartment were pensioners who were vacationing in different sanatoriums - in Feodosia, Alushta and Yalta.
Everyone really liked it, and they are definitely going to come next year. They lamented that the package did not include the necessary procedures, all this was for a fee, but the sea is the sea and it is beautiful at any time of the year.
Already on the train after our first conversations, I realized that residents of the capital do not understand at all what is happening in Crimea, they live in their metropolitan reality, receiving higher pensions, benefits and quotas in Moscow, in contrast to the same Crimea. They said that their children, of course, were worried, believing that a vacation to Crimea was associated with risks, but everything was fine, thank God.
Moscow greeted me with its frantic rhythm, energy, damp and cool air, and I perfectly understood that the capital lives in its own rhythm, far from the Crimean front-line zone. People survive here, and all for the sake of money and comfort. Everything else interests them little, unless it disrupts the usual rhythm, level of comfort and opportunity to earn money.
The very next day, while traveling by car, I realized that there was significantly less traffic, and over the past three weeks I have been convinced of this many times. Perhaps due to those who left/fled and due to a decrease in business activity. It is obvious that the announced mobilization hit the residents of the capital. Back in May, when I was in my hometown, I did not notice gloomy and tense looks, perhaps due to spring and good weather.
I traveled a lot to companies, talked to people, and gradually the picture began to take shape. People don’t want to hear this whole story, at least, it stresses them out, it interferes with their comfortable life and plans, and it’s hard for me to blame them. But my interlocutors are even more afraid of a new wave of mobilization. For some companies, what just ended was a blow, as key young specialists were taken away.
Thus, one of the largest public Russian companies on the very first day took almost 300 employees and highly qualified specialists out of Russia, relocating them to countries near and far abroad, officially transferring them to remote work. They are no exception; I have a lot of such examples.
Indeed, there are many technology companies in the capital, including construction and engineering companies, from where craftsmen, drivers, crane operators, and other unique specialists were taken. Let's be honest, tens, hundreds of thousands of specialists urgently left Russia, and the reason is obvious to everyone.
While the SVO was carried out by the regular army and volunteers, everything was more or less calm, but now I would call the situation complex and completely unpredictable.
In the capital and large cities, with populations of millions, tectonic shifts always begin earlier, and they have already begun, they are already visible. A rather weak official information field, taking into account the higher education index in cities, all this causes faster reactions to what is happening. The capital's comfort zone has been violated, and this is just the beginning.
What are Muscovites afraid of? Sabotage and terrorist attacks, a new wave of mobilization and a further decline in living standards. In the outback this is much easier, and here you can feel the gap between the capital and the rest.
To me, who lives in Crimea and partly still in Moscow, these two worlds are clear. There is a gap and misunderstanding between them. The brain is torn between these two universes, each of which lives according to its own laws. But if you choose where, then most likely in Crimea, although many of my Moscow acquaintances strongly advise me to leave before it’s too late.
What's next? Go to Crimea, climb into front-line skin in anticipation of spring and summer. Yesterday I decided to buy some tourist equipment, if not military equipment. Anything is possible. But no matter what, Moscow will live by its own laws, and the gap between the capital and the outback in relation to what is happening will only grow.
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