Developments in “DNR” and “LNR”: 8 – 22 June 2021 (Newsletter 90)
Written by Nikolaus von Twickel
Summary
The separatist presented a little-known Russian businessman as a new investor into plants formerly run by the Vneshtorgservis holding. They did not say from where Yevgeny Yurchenko would take the money to pay compensations for massive wage arrears. The author of an anonymous Telegram channel that had reported about labour unrest was thought to have been detained. COVID-cases were rising as the pandemic rages again in Russia and the “DNR” said that it was now also looking into the case of Belarusian journalist Protasevich.
From Kurchenko to Yurchenko
The separatists revealed on 11 June that Yevgeny Yurchenko, a hitherto little-known Russian investor, will replace the troubled Vneshtorgservis holding as operator of the region’s largest plants and coalmines. Earlier on the same day, separatist leaders Denis Pushilin and Leonid Pasechnik said in a joint statement that the new investor had agreed to pay the debts accumulated by Vneshtorgservis.
Wage arrears of up to half a year and near total neglect of crumbling infrastructure have crippled large factories and provoked unrest among tens of thousands of workers. The blame has largely been put on Vneshtorgservis, which was run as a shell company out of South Ossetia and controlled by Russia-based former oligarch Serhiy Kurchenko.
It was completely unclear how and with which money Yurchenko would solve the troubles that dogged Kurchenko. According to a report by the Ukrainian Realnaya Gazeta, Yurchenko’s main company, a holding called “Financial Assets”, has a capital base of just 34 million roubles (390,000 euros), a fraction of the multimillion debt accumulated by Vneshtorgservis.
The Russian businessman with no experience in the metals or mining industry has worked in banking and the telecoms sector, where he served as an executive for Komstar and Rostelekom. In 2018 he briefly served a s a deputy governor of his native Voronezh region in southern Russia. In 2020, he was President of the Russian Athletics Federation from February to November. The latter post may resemble Yurchenko’s role in the “People’s Republics”, because he headed the Federation during its deepest, doping-induced crisis without ever having been exposed to athletics himself, leading to speculation that he was President just on paper. “In the Russian athletics circus he now is the main performer”, the Sport-Express newspaper wrote at the time.
Needless to say that separatist leaders painted the handing over of control over industry from Vneshtorgservis to Yurchenko as a success – without saying how the plants would do better in the face of difficult market conditions.
“DNR” Industry and Trade Minister” Vladimir Rushchak on 12 June promised that the management change would end the social tensions at the factories previously controlled by Vneshtorgservis. He added that the export potential would be increased – but did not explain how. Leaders of the separatist-controlled trade unions said on 14 June that debts were being paid. “DNR”-leader Denis Pushilin said during a 16 June briefing that Yurchenko would not only compensate debts but also pay higher wages so that workers would no longer try to leave for better paid jobs.
Author of critical Telegram channel detained?
On 16 July, Yurchenko appeared in Alchevsk for a tour of the troubled Alchevsk Metals Factory, where thousands of workers are thought to have been on strike since late April. However, news of the strike was never reported by the separatist-sanctioned media but only by anonymous Telegram channels. The most prominent of them, “Secrets of the Lugansk Republic” stopped publishing on 7 June. Speculation that the channel’s author has been detained was confirmed a week later by the dissident antifashist.com website, citing an unnamed source.
The episode throws a light on the ruthless methods employed byt the separatists, especially the “LNR” when it comes to stifling dissent. Last year, Luhansk de facto authorities blocked numerous websites and the vkontakte social network in order to suppress information about striking coalminers (see Newsletter 77).
On 18 July, Yurchenko met with “LNR” leader Pasechnik, who told Yurchenko that the republic’s social situation needs stabilization and that “order should be restored” at the factory – a thinly disguised suggestion that labour unrest continues.
The risks of local industry facing total collapse has been highlighted in a recent essay by the Ukraine-based analyst Brian Milakovsky, who argues that while the misery and degradation has little tangible effect on the durability of Russian control, economic collapse would mean that the separatist-controlled areas become non-viable for economic life.
COVID-case numbers more than double in Donetsk
While Coronavirus cases are skyrocketing in Russia, the separatist elites showed no signs of alarm, despite the fact that case numbers were rising again. “DNR” leader Pushilin on 20 June congratulated medical workers for their professional holiday, saying that “many of them had sacrificed themselves in order to save others’ lives”.
One day later, some 16,000 people gathered for an open-air concert in Donetsk to mark the anniversary of Nazi Germany’s attack on the Soviet Union. Photos published by the official DAN news website showed the audience sitting close to each other wearing no masks. Among the performers was Ukrainian pianist Valentina Lisitsa, whom DAN introduced as an “American” pianist, although Lisitsa says on her homepage that she lives in Moscow and Rome. The pianist, who was born in Kyiv, is well-known for her support of Russia and the separatists and has performed in Donetsk before, e.g. in a memorial concert to slain separatist leader Alexander Sakharchenko in 2019.
However, separatist health authorities reported a more than twofold rise in infection numbers. As of 20 June, the “DNR” reported 1,913 new cases and 73 deaths over a seven-day period. In the previous week, those figures were 891 cases and 76 deaths. The rise follows large-scale celebrations for Russia Day on 12 June. Moreover, the positive rate remained far too high at between 30 and 40 per cent – a clear indicator that the number of tests is far too little and that the real number of infections is much higher.
Separatist health authorities said on Sunday that they recorded a total of 4,1876 cases and 3,183 deaths since the pandemic set in. Assuming a total population of 1.1 million, this means a cumulative death toll per one million inhabitants of 2,893 – meaning that the “DNR” has surpassed Czechia, the worst hit-country in Europe, which as of 20 June had 2,827 deaths per million.
The “LNR” as of 20 June reported 109 new cases and 11 deaths, a slight rise over the previous week, when it reported 92 cases and 8 deaths. However, the Luhansk separatists’ figures do not seem credible as they suggest that the areas controlled by them have radically fewer cases than the “DNR”, despite similarly bad conditions.
Both “republics” have not closed their de facto border with Russia, but kept restrictions on traffic with government-controlled Ukraine – especially the “DNR”, which has closed three of four crossing points. Pushilin said in May that the “DNR” might have to introduce new restrictions because it is in “a single epidemiological space” with Russia.
The health sector in both “People’s Republics” heavily suffers from low wages and ensuing brain drain. An official Video report about Pushilin awarding grants to medical students on 15 June heavily focused on the issue that students should not leave. “I expect that our talented graduates wills stay in the republic”, Pushilin told a less than-half full lecture hall.
Russia has sent two parties of its Sputnik vaccine to Donetsk and Luhansk in January and February, and a third party has been promised by the end of June. There is no reliable information about how many people have been vaccinated so far. The “DNR” is believed to have received some 50,000 doses, well below the necessary amount to achieve herd immunity for 1.1 million people.
Vaccination programs in both Russia and Ukraine have been hampered by short supplies and widespread unwillingness of the population to get vaccinated.
Protasevich under investigation in Donetsk, too
In the case of Roman Protasevich, “DNR” leader Pushilin announced on 16 June that it, too, was investigating the Belarusian journalist, who was forced off a Ryanair plane and imprisoned by Belarusian authorities on 23 May.
Earlier, the “LNR” had opened a criminal case against Protasevich on the pretext that he had fought in the ranks of the Ukrainian ultranationalist Azov battalion. “LNR” Prosecutor General Sergei Gorenko said on 16 June that prosecutors from Luhansk had questioned the journalist in Minsk and received “enough evidence that Protasevich had committed war crimes in 2014 and 2015.
However, Protasevich’s lawyer denied on 18 June that “LNR” prosecutors spoke with her client. Inessa Olenskaya said after a meeting with Protasevich that he did not have any contact with LNR representatives, the Interfax Belarus news agency reported.
According to Pushilin, “DNR” prosecutors were still investigating and would later decide whether to open a criminal case. It remained unclear why the “LNR” initiated the investigation despite the fact that Azov members were hardly active in the Luhansk region and based mostly in the southern Donetsk region.
(edited on 22 June 2021)
