Many people ask me what life is like in Crimea now. I answer as well as I can, in a conversational manner. 

Crowds of pensioners siege the post office every day, they are given their pensions in roubles, but in the Ukrainian amount (if I did not overlook anything). Prices on everything are growing by the minute. The utility bill that came was 4 times bigger than the previous ones, all the utilities have become several times more expensive. The kindergarden – twice as expensive. Sources of revenues are closing down. Money transfer and payment of bills is ridiculously difficult, everywhere there are lines with lists starting at 6 a.m. There is very little rouble mass, the Russian SberBank makes us buy Hryvnia (to give out the rouble transfer) at a ridiculously high rate. Establishments demand payment in roubles, the exchange points steal more at reverse conversion. There are no more happy shouts of “we are finally in Russia!” to be heard. They have gone quiet. The supply of all essentials is incredibly difficult, soon the stocks will have been emptied, and it will be much more fun. Maybe the brains will clear up. Especially in the fall, when the Russian companies come, squish down the local business owners and the workers will be thrown over the fence without any salary. And I will laugh devilishly at everything. F***ing idiots. They sat buried in shit from the waist down, and then they wanted full immersion. I will laugh unless I die of hunger. Nobody gives me a job: “we are sending our employees on self-paid vacations,” “if you want to work for free, we don’t know when the salaries will come.” In order for production to work, they need wagons, containers, raw materials, spare parts, imported materials etc. All of this is either closed or unaccessible because of the prices. The production will soon be halted. The Russian Federation is importing its own human resources to the “bread-winning” bureaucratic posts, or giving them the most dedicated loyalists, which have earlier been condemned vehemently. I still remember one O. Kovitidi, whom the local citizens had called a thief and a corruptionist, and other things, on city forums for five years (that’s how long I have been familiar with this surname). Now Mrs. Kovitidi has flown up to the Federation Council. She represents Crimea. And so it happened with all human resources, Putin’s employment policy is unwavering and somehow organised. As to tourism – tourism is dead. Nobody can get in now. Yes, my congratulations, on May 9th the order to tear down the first line of construction at the coast has been signed. I warned – they will build a ghetto for you, like in Sochi, surround it with fences, the sea will not be for the poor locals and tourists, but for the rich. Everyone laughed at me. So there. My friends here fought the illegal gambling business, they were killed by bandits, including those in uniform, and Putin legalised it. A gambling zone! And this in addition to human trafficking, prostitution. More girls will be coming home “not from school…” Seems the only way is to flood it all. Sweet cherries, plums, apples are in bloom. Soon apricots and cherries will come. Where will this all go? Preserve it without sugar? Without cans? Sink it in the sea? You’ll piss yourself eating it, it’s impossible. So, industry has been destroyed. Before, you had been able to hitchhike your way here, because of poverty, or through Ukraine by railway. Now, dear friends, look at the Black Sea in photographs… Some more information to think about. Only in Sevastopol are they now employing 600 bailiffs. The time has come to take away property from the simple-minded local citizens, who have sold themselves so cheap, for fairy-tales. P.S. There will definitely be a continuation. N.V. Source: Levoradikal (http://levoradikal.ru/archives/12992) Translated by Mariya Shcherbinina