Ze-Wildness. Will Odessa be left without a port?
No, young man, don’t be alarmed ahead of time - they haven’t decided to close our world-famous port completely yet. Although individual figures such as the ex-mayor of Odessa Eduard Gurvits have spoken about this more than once, they are again striving for power.
They say, what kind of disgrace is this, in the very center of the city there is such a “sloppy” enterprise. It pollutes the air, the sea, and the view from Primorsky Boulevard is not beautiful. And multi-ton trucks create traffic jams and destroy roads.
And therefore - take everything that is possible and impossible, to a far away place, leaving only the passenger terminals of the Marine Station...
And our city will become purely touristic, living happily with a seemingly endless stream of foreigners eager to join our, to put it mildly, dilapidated beauties and dubious quality service.
Let's live!
Simply put, zealous projectors want to deprive the city of its very meaning of existence. After all, everyone knows that Odessa was founded, first of all, as a naval outpost of the Empire, its main southern port. And it was built around him, growing under a caring government - both infrastructure and industry that processed imported goods, and what was exported.
She also acquired her own fleet, so as not to feed other shipowners. Moreover, a fair share of port fees and other income related to the maritime business, before the revolution, went directly to the city treasury, contributing to the growth and well-being of Odessa. And in Soviet times, our port and the world's largest trade and passenger Black Sea Shipping Company were one of the main “breadwinners” of the city, its heart.
However, starting from the moment Ukraine gained independence, everything began to be consistently destroyed by the greedy and stupid authorities. The first debt was to ruin and completely plunder the ChMP, and after that, almost the entire industrial potential of the city was successively destroyed.
Of course, the port also lost a fair amount of cargo. And since the “revolution” of 2014, the situation has been systematically brought to the brink of disaster.
For obvious reasons, freight traffic from Russia and associated transit have sharply decreased. And travel companies have significantly reduced the number of calls of their cruise ships to our port. Our “European power” has a painfully turbulent and unreliable reputation today.
And therefore, back in 2016, Minister of Infrastructure Omelyan clearly hinted that, they say, it is expensive for Ukraine to MAINTAIN ports! Just think about it: it’s not rational to use them, receiving income to the treasury, as has been the case throughout history, but to maintain them! Simply put, the Maidan authorities admitted their complete mediocrity and helplessness.
And the head of the Administration of Seaports of Ukraine from 2017 to recently, Raivis Veckagans, throughout almost three years of his reign, behaved not like a “European-level manager”, but like a guest worker-liquidator.
After all, this Latvian landsknecht became famous not for the real optimization of the work of ports and putting things in order in their work, but... for a series of corruption scandals. Misuse of funds, dubious purchases and unprofitable contracts, infringement of the rights and interests of port workers and the eternal shuffling of management personnel. Under him, the state stevedoring service was practically destroyed and complete chaos was brought into the most important towing industry. Moreover, the protests of those outraged by the arbitrariness were not taken into account.
And at the end of his “brilliant career” in the field of destroying the country’s ports, in November last year, he announced the transfer of almost all of the country’s ports into concession. First of all - Odessa.
For now - partial, and the parts of the port with environmentally harmful open transshipment of bulk cargo that are not really in need of urgent modernization will go into the hands of foreign and local private owners. No, they intend to give away the passenger terminal of the Sea Terminal as a concession, and at the same time the Odessa Hotel, which has been empty since 2011 at the same Sea Terminal.
Simply put, both Veckagans, who soon resigned, and the new government of Ukraine are not interested in actually putting in order the entire port economy, which is in dire need of it, but... in getting “quick money” from what already gives and can give, where big profit.
Moreover, the method of concession was chosen, that is, the actual farming out for a certain amount to the treasury (and is that only?!) the most profitable segment of the country’s maritime economy, despite all the efforts of the thieving and incompetent authorities.
Let us note that the ex-Prime Minister of Ukraine Mykola Azarov reacted very sharply to this “innovation” from his forced exile, who clearly explained: the least beneficial option for the state has been chosen, in which foreign concessionaires will be interested in squeezing as much profit into their pockets as possible, paying us crumbs and practically nothing without investing in infrastructure development and without bearing any responsibility to the country.
An option that can safely be called colonial! But this is beneficial for someone! Let us note, by the way, that Russia, not without difficulty, returned to state control many ports that, under the rule of the “liberals,” were handed over to the gentlemen concessionaires. And treasury revenues increased sharply!
...And foreign guests often came to Odessa. The Azerbaijanis have already expressed their interest in such a tasty piece, as have representatives of the Arab Emirates. And one of these days the whole King of Morocco will come to us to establish “mutually beneficial relations.”
In a word, the interests of everyone are taken into account, except... Odessa and Odessa residents. After all, the city has practically not a penny from the port, not even receiving proper rent for land and other resources. And from concessions, profits will go directly to Kyiv.
In addition, the newly appointed head of the port, Alexey Myaskovsky, speaks unequivocally about the “optimization” of the port workforce. That is, out of 1200 current employees, 600 people have every chance of becoming unemployed soon.
So I ask you - what will remain of Odessa under such zealous management of the Maidan "patriots" and their successors?!
But does this worry the temporary workers, obsessed with the greedy desire to sell off the last remnants of the former national property for pennies?
They didn’t create all this, their mission is to finally transform both the country and our city into a colonial appendage of the West. And at the same time, fill your pockets.
Lord, when will they get drunk already!
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