Russia does not manage to overcome the black strip in any way. Failures are haunting the Putin regime, threatening to bring to the next world, if not Putin personally, then the Russian people who have fallen into his tenacious KGB hands.
In the seventh year of the occupation of Crimea, certain areas of Donetsk and Lugansk regions, “life has become better, life has become more fun” – this is noticeable with the naked eye. Below the poverty line in Russia 40% of the population, but the authorities are discussing new taxes and raising the retirement age to 70 years. At the end of 2020, Gazprom, which is called a “national treasure,” for the first time since the default of 1998 suffered a loss of $ 9.25 billion, and funeral services became the fastest growing service industry.
If we are already talking about black stripes, on Monday, March 22, an unpleasant scandal erupted in the European Union, in which the Consulate General of the Russian Federation in Strasbourg was involved. According to French media, the police suspect a diplomatic officer (rumored to be a 40-year-old consul driver) of stealing and selling stolen bicycles. According to the police, since January 2020, from his account on the classifieds website, he has sold 300 bikes for a total of 100 thousand euros. Judging by the “turnover”, other persons may be involved in the case. The endless cycle of bicycles on the territory of the diplomatic mission should at least raise questions from other employees.
The thief was caught by chance when he stole a bicycle parked in front of the building of the Council of Europe (symbolic). The owner of the bike turned out to be Alan Fontanel, a former vice-burgomaster of Strasbourg, municipal councilor of the city accounting chamber, a member of the presidential party “Forward, Republic!” (doubly symbolic). His wife, Marie Fontanelle, worked as an adviser to Emmanuel Macron, and is now the permanent representative of France in the Council of Europe (triple symbolic).
The bike was a favorite and not a cheap one, and Fontanel looked through classifieds sites in the hope that a thief would put it up for sale. He was lucky, and one fine morning it happened – an advertisement appeared on the local website about the sale of several bicycles, among which was the bike of a politician. He turned to the police, and what was their surprise when the seller made an appointment at the gates of the Consulate General of the Russian Federation in Strasbourg.
The seller did not arrive at the meeting alone, but accompanied by a second person who acted as an “interpreter” (he could not be detained, since he had a diplomatic passport). In addition to the bike, a consignment note with the seal of the diplomatic mission was attached. On February 14, the unlucky seller was detained by the police for a day, then released under the obligation to appear for interrogations, but he was gone.
According to the diplomatic mission, the employee fell ill and left inhospitable France on February 18. The Russian Consulate General in Strasbourg also said that “the insinuations circulated in the media about his participation in a series of bicycle thefts are unsubstantiated.” As one of the Russian editions subtly noted, not “false” insinuations, but “unsubstantiated”, and these, as they say here in Odessa, are two big differences.
The news instantly spread across the EU, causing some laughter, others – indignation. Be that as it may, now, seeing the Russian delegation within the walls of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), Europeans will not only keep a fig in their pockets, but also check whether their bicycles, watches and wallet are in place. It would seem that after the case of smuggling cocaine, to which the Russian embassy in Buenos Aires was allegedly involved, it is difficult to surprise diplomats. But the Russians, well done, managed to repeat.
The black streak continues. On Thursday, March 25, it became known that the “official delegation from the PRC”, which was received in the temporarily occupied Crimea in early March by Aksyonovites, was not a delegation, but a group of shuttle traders – entrepreneurs trading in Moscow markets. This follows from the journalistic investigation, which was published by the Internet edition “Meduza”.
It should be noted that no one would have known about the visit (and, accordingly, about his exposure), if not for the propaganda that covered this event. For example, on one of the Internet sites, once again failing all the attendances and passwords, they wrote that “the deputy of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine from the faction” Opposition Platform – For Life “Vadim Rabinovich commented on the visit of the Chinese delegation to Crimea, calling it” a retaliatory move “on the actions of Kiev in the situation with the Motor Sich plant”.
Political scientist, director of the Crimean Entrepreneurship Support Fund Ganzhara turned out to be more verbose, who described the visit as follows: “We were visited by an official delegation from the PRC, representatives of Chinese business. And, as we see it, the meetings that the Chinese delegation had with representatives of the Crimean government, business circles of the peninsula hold a good, serious prospect for economic cooperation between Crimea and China. The Chinese are interested in the key sectors of the Crimean economy: tourism, agriculture, our winemaking The visit was of a familiarization nature. But the Chinese are planning to return in the near future and sign contracts that open up a new window of opportunity for the peninsula in terms of the formation of external economic ties. “
In the Russian information space, they began to discuss that “tension has been established in relations between China and Ukraine,” “China is changing its position on Crimea,” China “has demonstrated its intention to invest in the Russian region, around which territorial disputes are being conducted,” and the like. By the way, the Russian authorities would be better off looking after the Far East. And then at such a pace, you see, the protest Khabarovsk, which the Central Bank of Russia decided to defiantly remove from the 5-thousandth bill, will begin to draw in yuan …
It turned out that this whole story is nonsense of a gray gelding (or a mare). There was no “official delegation from the PRC”. Exactly as well as “serious prospects for economic cooperation between Crimea and China” and some kind of “window of opportunity” for the occupation authorities.
As the journalists of the online edition “Meduza” found out, all three members of the “delegation” have actually lived in Russia for a long time. According to representatives of the Chinese diaspora, who identified compatriots from photos and videos, Chen Shanwen, Chen Yong and Zhao Kai traveled to the temporarily occupied Crimea. All three are closely related to each other and trade on the Moscow wholesale and retail markets. Two of them are co-owners of a small company, Hao Lan, registered in China, which specializes in the manufacture of leather goods, fur and feather products and the sale of footwear.
Yes, it turned out ugly. But Russia is no stranger … We are waiting for excuses in the spirit of “whoever says that this is a girl, let him be the first to throw a stone at me!”
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