Bombshell details about Russia's occupation of Crimea and attempts to break off south-eastern Ukraine have now been made public as Ukrainian prosecutors shared previously unknown telephone intercepts depicting who appears to be Putin's top advisor Sergei Glazyev orchestrating and financing the Russian occupation of Crimea and pro-Russian uprisings in south-eastern Ukraine. Particularly, they provide further evidence that Russia's "Novorossiya" project was first and foremost an attempt to provide resources for the newly-occupied peninsula heavily dependent on Ukraine - as well as proving that the occupation was planned at least from 2010-2011.
Part 1: $25,000 for takeover of Crimea, Kharkiv, Odesa
Part 1 was published on 21.12.2017, and relates to the early days of the Russian occupation of Crimea. In it, Glazyev and Zatulin discuss the funding of the Russian occupation of Crimea and separatist actors in Kharkiv and Odesa, possible appointments to key government positions, as well as Russian legal experts tasked with preparing annexation documents which would be compatible with Russian legislation. Many of the figures taking part in the occupation and pro-Russian uprisings, such as Viktor Medvedchuk, are still active politicians in Ukraine.
27 February 2014. On this day, the Crimean Parliament was seized, the Russian tricolor was raised above it, Aksyonov was appointed as the self-proclaimed governor, and a decision to hold a “referendum” was made.According to one of the conversations on this day, Zatulin asks Glazyev for money to finance the incitement of separatism in Kharkiv and Odesa. Zatulin says that he had already wired $25,000 from his Institute to fund operations in Crimea as well as separatist actors in Kharkiv and Odesa, and asks Glazyev to issue an order to somebody called “friend” to that purpose. Glazyev asks about the needed sum. Zatulin answers: “Well, taking into account the expenditures ahead, up to 50. Tomorrow.” Glazyev agrees.

“we had funded Kharkiv, funded Odesa. There are applications from other regions, but I put everything on hold as I hadn’t solved the financial question yet, and I’m the only one carrying these responsibilities. Right now I paid the Cossacks [pro-Russian militant groups in Crimea – Ed] the money which 10 people promised them but nobody gave sh*t. And so on. So the financial question starts to be irritating.”

“This has to all be done properly in the propaganda sense. So they will be heroes and so on. So that people would be there. This event is very important. […]It’s necessary for the Parliament to commemorate them with a minute of silence.[…]So that they will be declared heroes of the resistance or whatnot,” he instructs.Taking the events in Crimea at that time into account, it’s likely that the conversation touches upon two killed participants of a numerous protest near the Crimean parliament on 26 February, when clashes between pro-Russian and pro-Ukrainian protesters took place. The “courts” in occupied Crimea had later sentenced Crimean Tatar Mejlis leader Akhtem Chiygoz for participating in this protest; Ali Asanov and Mustafa Dehermendzhi are still in detention.
In the same conversation, Glazyev offers to send "legal experts" to Crimea who will prepare legislature for its parliament, and instructs to take the customs under control, “so that they won’t steal everything.”
“I contacted Medvedchuk, they will give their proposals. They have the Crimean Justice Minister there […], they characterize him well. He says we will prop up the legal team. We need to keep this Korovchenko. He’s the Justice Minister of Crimea and we need him to stay,” “Glazyev” said.Currently, Sergei Korovchenko carries out political activities in the city of Pryluky in Ukraine’s northern Chernihiv Oblast, and in 2017 he applied for the position of a judge in Ukraine’s Supreme Court. In another recording from 28 February, the interlocutors say that while there are enough military commanders to manage the occupation, there is a lack of a political coordinator. “Glazyev” mentioned that he would ask that a certain “Slava” be returned as a political curator, so that “he would take up this coordination and work with everybody.” This mentioned Slava is extremely likely to be Vladislav Surkov, who, according to Russian MP Ilya Ponomaryov, developed the strategic plan to seize Crimea from Ukraine.
Part 2: "We need to expand to the North"

The second part of the tapes were published by Censor.Net on 28 December 2017. They were intercepted by the Ukrainian counterintelligence on 27 and 28 February, as well as 1, 2, and 3 March 2014, and shed light on how Russia seized the Ukrainian peninsula, and suggest that "operation Novorossiya," or Russia's attempts to break away south-eastern Ukraine through pro-Russian uprisings, was launched because of Crimea's dependence on Ukraine for water, electricity, and gas. As well, they confirm that the Crimean Tatars were offered money for accepting the occupation of Crimea, but declined.
28 February 2014. The day before, unmarked soldiers seized the buildings of the Crimean Parliament and Government. On 28 February, Russia continued to bring its troops to Crimea and take military objects under control, Kyiv announced that Russia is conducting a “military invasion and occupation.” Viktor Yanukovych gives a press conference in Rostov na-Donu where he declared that the power in Ukraine was seized by “nationalist pro-fascist youngsters,” future Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko arrives in the Crimean capital of Simferopol, but pro-Russian protesters didn’t let him in the building of the Parliament, Crimean Tatar Mejlis leader Mustafa Dzhemilev announced that the Mejlis is ready to arm itself.In a recording of a conversation between Zatulin and “Glazyev” from 28 February 2014, Zatulin says that the day before, Sergei Belaventsev, a friend of “Sergei Kuzhugetovich” (most probably, the latter is Russian Defense Minister Shoigu) had been conducting “different types of work” to get Aksenov into power. As well, he mentions that Belaventsev had been working on the candidature of Leonid Grach, one of the former leaders of the Communist Party of Ukraine, who the Russian Communists proposed making the Head of Crimea to Vladimir Putin in 2014. Zatulin says that Grach didn’t fit the role, so then Aksenov’s candidature was taken up. In another call that same day, “Glazyev” rings up Zatulin to tell him about “certain economic calculations […] which say that this peninsula doesn’t have its own electricity, water, or gas.” Zatulin answers that he was present at a meeting with “Belous” – probably, Andrei Belousov, the former Russian Economy Minister and advisor to Putin who was visiting Crimea in those days, where these issues were discussed. Glazyev: “There is a solution to these questions. A quick and effective one. It’s enough to look a bit to the north.” Zatulin: “Well, I think he will return today [to Moscow – ed], you need to meet him. He’s going to conduct meetings there, call up ministers and so on. Glazyev: “Listen, while he’s going to conduct all that crap, bring this to people’s attention. Because a lot depends on their position. We need to expand.”
What does this “looking to the north” and “expansion” refer to? It seems that Russia’s plans to split Ukraine in two, proclaiming south-eastern Ukraine as an imaginary “Novorossiya” fits like a glove. Russia’s covert war in the Donbas and coordination of pro-Russian uprisings in Ukraine’s south-east had been explained as an attempt to create a landbridge to Crimea by many an analyst. It seems now we have proof of Russian officials discussing these very plans, which came up as a solution to Crimea’s dependence on mainland Ukraine for nearly everything. The absence of Ukrainian resources in Crimea continues to hit its economy. To get around Crimea's energy dependence on Ukraine, Russia had with the help of the German company Siemens built two power stations in breach of EU sanctions. However, Crimea's lack of fresh water has no viable solution yet.
Read more: Occupied Crimea is running out of water; Siemens' Crimea sanctions break - a case of criminal negligence | #SiemensGate

Part 3: a single plan to call for Russian troops
Part 3 was published on 18.01.2018 and covers Russian curating of the purported "separatist" rallies in Odesa, Kharkiv, Donetsk, Luhansk. In it, Glazyev is heard pushing for a single plan for all the cities: for rallies to appeal for protection directly to Vladimir Putin, for Oblast Councils to be seized and deputies intimidated into adopting resolutions proclaiming the Kyiv authorities illegitimate and appealing to Russia for help. Glazyev urges the protesters to act faster. This part also sheds light on the heavy involvement of the pro-Putin bike club "Night Wolves" and its leader "Surgeon" in the occupation of Crimea and plans for pro-Russian uprisings in Ukraine.
1 March 2014: Russian servicemen continue capturing and blocking Ukrainian military and civilian objects in Crimea, and self-proclaimed Prime Minister Sergey Aksenov asks Vladimir Putin for help. At the same time, attempts to seize regional administrations and hoist the Russian flag above them continue throughout eastern Ukraine. On that day, the Oblast administration in Kharkiv was captured and the Donetsk one stormed, pro-separatist rallies were held simultaneously in several Ukrainian cities. And in Russia, an evening extraordinary meeting of the Security Council allows Putin to use the Russian army on the territory of Ukraine, a decision necessitated by, as explained by Putin, a letter of the “legitimate Ukrainian president Yanukovych” asking to introduce troops into Ukraine. This letter is the main article of proof for Yanukovych’s state treason, which is imputed by the prosecution. In parallel with these events, Putin’s advisor Sergei Glazyev conducts telephone conversations with various people, coordinating separatist actions in Ukraine.Conversation 1. Denys Yatsiuk, an activist from the Odesa anti-Maidan movement, calls Glazyev and asks for concrete advice and guarantees of support. Glazyev assures himthat the pro-Russian insurgents will be supported by Russia, and advises Yatsiuk to urge rallies to appeal directly to Putin, asking for Russian protection. As well, he instructs him to take over the regional council and intimidate the local deputies into voting for a resolution condemning the interim government in Kyiv as illegitimate. “Whoever didn’t come and vote is a traitor, banderite, fascist, etc., with all ensuing consequences,” Glazyev instructs on intimidating the deputies. Glazyev says that this all has to be done by tomorrow.

“Make decisive actions, like they did in Kharkiv and Donetsk. There, our guys have captured the regional councils.”Conversation 4. Glazyev talks with Zatulin, who is apparently in Crimea at the time. He tells him about his idea – to create a pro-Russian analog of Automaidan, a coalition of motorized Euromaidan activists who were instrumental during the Euromaidan protests in Kyiv in 2013-2014, which would be deployed to the adjacent Ukrainian oblasts, and asks whether “the Surgeon” – according to censor.net.ua, Aleksandr Zaldostanov, founder of the “Night Wolves” biker club who calls himself “Putin’s friend - is in Crimea.

“The key city which needs support in Zaporizhzhia. Because without Zaporizhzhia, Crimea won’t survive, it’s not viable.”Conversation 5. Glazyev tells Zatulin about the need to provide assistance to “our guys” in Dnipro who were blocking a military base with paratroopers given the order to depart to Crimea to block the isthmus connecting it with mainland Ukraine. He says that the “guys” need to connect with the Russian “service” along the army line in order to receive reinforcements for blocking the departure of the paratroopers. Zatulin, who is in Sevastopol, agrees to help.
Part 4: Expanding the "zone"
The fourth part of the tapes was published on 30.01.2018. It covers Glazyev's further coordination of pro-Russian rallies in southeastern Ukraine and suggests that Crimea's dependence on Ukrainian resources is behind Russia's involvement in them.

“And either the governor implements the decisions of the councils or the councils form their own executive organ and subordinate the executive power until the situation normalizes.”Conversation 4. Glazyev talks to Valeriy Holenko, the chairman of the Luhansk Oblast council and high-ranking member of Yanukovych’s Party of Regions, and assures him that Russia is ready to provide assistance, but the council should proclaim the Kyiv authorities as illegitimate and the local councils as the only legitimate power, meaning that the executive power should submit to them, and appeal to Russia for help. Conversation 5. Glazyev talks to an unidentified “Vladimir Andreevich” and asks him to adopt, when possible, a resolution of the Supreme Council [of Crimea - Ed] prepared by Yanukovych’s legal advisor and deputy Head of the Presidential Administration Andriy Portnov. “We need it for the foreign political level so that it will be clear that not all of Ukraine wants to sign the Association Agreement with the EU. [...] Because, you see, the UN Security Council will convene, and the situation will enter the international legal field. It's very important for us to have your position about the EU Association Agreement, so it would be clear that it contradicts the Ukrainian Constitution," Glazyev explains, referring to the document which Yanukovych refused to sign in November 2014, which set the Euromaidan revolution in motion. Conversation 6. Glazyev talks to an unidentified “Aleksei Vasilievich.” “We aim to … go after the appeals of the Ukrainian society to us [Russia – Ed], that’s why we need mass rallies, appeals of people to Russia, to the Russian president for help,” Glazyev urges, saying that Oblast Councils need to be seized and decisions of the councils were to be adopted saying that the Kyiv authorities are illegitimate and that the Oblast Council takes responsibility for the territory and creates an executive committee. “This is the formula which will allow us to give you further support,” Glazyev says, adding that simply holding rallies is not enough. Conversation 7. Glazyev talks to Ukrainian businessman and MP Lev Myrymskyi. Myrymskyi, as a native of Crimea, offers Glazyev his assistance in being a negotiator between Crimea and Kyiv. Glazyev says that this is possible only if he is with “them,” i.e. Russia:
“There is a war, you understand? We need help. That’s why Zatulin is a boss there [in Crimea], who coordinates all this war on the social-political front.”Conversation 8. Glazyev calls Zatulin and warns that a group of Crimean Tatars were planning to capture the Crimean Council [which was by that time seized by unmarked Russian soldiers – Ed], and that Mirimskyi should not be an intermediary, and that the Crimean authorities should not appoint any intermediaries without Russian approval.
Part 5: If we take Zaporizhzhia, Crimea will receive energy and water
The fifth part of the tapes, published by censor.net.ua on 6.02.2018, tells about Russia's goals to seize the east-Ukrainian city of Zaporizhzhia to supply occupied Crimea with energy and water, plans to torpedo Ukraine's call for a general mobilization, Russia's consideration of involving Russian troops stationed in nearby Transnistria in order to facilitate the plan to break off Odesa from Ukraine. As well, it provides evidence that Russia had planned for the occupation of Crimea at least from 2010-2011.
“If we block Zaporizhzhia, we will take the Oblast Council. We’ll gather the council, Zaporizhzhia will swear to us and will abandon the Kyiv authorities, we basically win the situation. Because Zaporizhzhia is the damb, bridges […]Second, it’s the energy sector, the main thing. Crimea is not viable without energy. […] If we take Zaporizhzhia, then they [Ukrainian forces - Ed] won’t be able to approach anywhere near Crimea. And Crimea will receive energy and water. A guaranteed supply. Try to mobilize them there, so they head out to Zaporizhzhia.”

“Because mobilization is no joke. They’ll mobilize some scumbags from western Ukraine, give them weapons. And this is a serious threat,” Glazyev warns Zatulin.Conversation 3. Glazyev talks to Valeriy Kaurov, a pro-Russian activist from Odesa and head of the “Union of Orthodox citizens of Ukraine” among other organizations who in the spring of 2014 pronounced himself the head of the separatist “Odesa people’s republic” and then fled to Russia.

6 March 2014. The Russian army continues capturing Ukrainian army units in Crimea, seven countries condemned Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and cancelled the preparation for the G8 summit in Sochi. Russia’s permanent representative to the UN Vitaliy Churkin demonstrates a letter from runaway Ukrainian President Yanukovych asking Russia to introduce troops at a UNSC session. The Sevastopol city council adopted a decision to join Russia; the Crimean Supreme Council makes a decision to hold a referendum on joining Russia on 16 March.Conversation 6. Glazyev calls Sergei Aksenov, who was elected as Chairman of the Crimean Council of Ministers at the time, and says that the questions for the referendum should be changed “so the people would definitely understand them.” Aksenov answers that the questions were formulated based on materials of Russian legal advisors sent to Crimea in order to create legal acts compatible with the Russian State Duma. One of the groups represented the interests of Viacheslav Volodin, the Deputy Head of the Russian Presidential Administration. Glazyev asks Aksenov to meet with Oleg Tsarev, a Ukrainian MP from the Party of Regions who after the Euromaidan left for occupied Donbas to build up “Novorossiya” there, saying he is the only MP of Ukraine’s Verkhovna Rada which Russia trusts. Then, Glazyev proposes Aksenov to resume an economic plan for Crimea which was developed under [supposedly - Vasyl] Dzharta [a Ukrainian politician who chaired the Council of Ministers of Crimea in 2010-2011 – Ed]. This plan was titled “Corporation for the development of Crimea” which was to receive up to $10 bn in credit from Vneshekonombank. Aksenov agrees to discuss the plan. This proves that Russia was planning the occupation of Crimea since at least 2011, as at that time there was a plan for the economic development of the Ukrainian peninsula.
Veracity of the tapes
When Ukrainian prosecutors published the first part of the Glazyev tapes in August 2016, Konstantin Zatulin confirmed that such conversations between him and Sergei Glazyev did take place in an interview with bfm.ru, but that the videos of the conversations grapublished by the GPU were a “compilation and manipulation” of his words. He admitted that after the Euromaidan revolution in Ukraine, he and Glazyev created a fund “We are all Berkut,” referring to the riot police who are accused in killing anti-government protesters in central Kyiv in 2014, “to help the people fighting against the coup, and against the coup in Ukraine. I am not ashamed of this in the least, and have no intention of offering excuses to anyone,” he told. Commenting to RFE/RL’s Crimean service, Ruslan Kravchenko, a prosecutor of the Chief Military Prosecutor’s Office, said that the veracity of the “Glazyev tapes” was verified by an expert assessment, but didn’t specify the details and authors of the expert conclusion. Yanukovych’s defense in court, on the other hand, said that the court can’t use the tapes as proof, as Ukraine’s Prosecutors office classified the court decision to wiretap the telephone of Putin’s advisor, and therefor it’s impossible to verify that it exists. In the same article, the leader of the Crimean Communist Party Leonid Grach said that Glazyev and Zatulin were unlikely to play a key role in Russia’s occupation of Crimea, asserting that the top Russian authorities were engaged in the process. As well, he said it’s unlikely that Knyrik and Pershikov had any serious influence on the formation of the government of Aksenov. According to Grach, Oleg Belaventsov, the future representative of Vladimir Putin in Crimea and close friend of Russia’s Minister of Defense Sergei Shoigu, who offered Grach a position in the Crimean government, had the final say, and the government was formed with the participation of ousted ex-president Yanukovych. Meanwhile, former Russian MP Ilya Ponomaryov, the only Russian MP who voted against the annexation of Crimea, told 112.ua in September 2017 that Russian President Vladimir Putin oversaw the entire operation to occupy Crimea, but ideologically and strategically the entire plan for seizing the territories of Ukraine was developed by his assistant Vladislav Surkov. He noted that he heard from Surkov directly that the Crimean branch of Yanukovych’s Party of Regions promised that they could carry out the operation by themselves, but after the Crimean Tatars showed strong resistance, the Russian side used the services of the criminal world – Aksenov and Konstantinov. He added that the Kremlin purposefully placed a bandit to manage occupied Crimea so it would be possible to control the crowd.Read more:
- After the Glazyev Tapes: what Moscow’s interference in Ukraine means for the Minsk Agreements
- Ukraine publishes video proving Kremlin directed separatism in eastern Ukraine and Crimea
- Russia prepared to occupy Crimea back in 2010 and other things we learned from Yanukovych’s treason trial
- Could Ukraine have fought off Crimean occupation? A crucial document you should know
- Meet the people behind Novorossiya’s grassroots defeat