Revolucija u Kijevu ~ Rat na istoku Ukrajine :: Politicki ~ Geopoliticki forum

Media: The Crimea experienced a 40% drop in tourism this season

Recreation in the Crimea is experiencing a new shock. The flow of tourists to the annexed peninsula at the beginning of the tourist season fell by almost 40%, according to Deutsche Welle.

"Among the reasons for the decrease in Russian interest in the peninsula are high prices for air tickets and cold weather," DW notes.

The data provided by tour operators is confirmed by the owners of large and small hotels located on the southern coast of the Crimea.

"In May, there was a drop in the flow of tourists by 35-40%," said a hotel employee in the village of Koreiz (Big Yalta).

According to him, this likely indicates that number of vacationers in July-August will decrease by 20-30%.

Another factor, he said, is high prices and poor service in the Crimea. As a result, vacationers choose direct competitors.

"The Turks are now offering tours at very affordable prices. We cannot compete and lose," the hotel employee said.

He stressed that the wave of euphoria among the Russians fell: "Now you cannot go out on patriotism alone. The economic crisis also affected the solvency of Russian citizens. They began to spend less."

Russia annexed the Crimea in 2014 though the international community largely saw it as a violation of Ukraine’s sovereignty then as it does now. The EU imposed economic sanctions on Russia. In particular, European investments in the Crimean economy are completely banned.

Sanctions also apply to the provision of tourist services in the Crimea and Sevastopol. Separately entry of cruise ships into the Crimean ports is forbidden. In accordance with the legislation of Ukraine, crossing the border from the territory of Russia to the Crimea is prohibited.

Russian soldier captured in the Donbas

One of the LPR militants who were captured on June 24 near to Zhelobok turned out to be the Russian soldier Viktor Ageyev, drafted in the Altai Krai, who served on a contract basis, writes BBC citing the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense and the command of the 93rd Mechanized Brigade of the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU).

The mother and friends of Viktor Ageyev confirmed that after his compulsory service, Viktor served in the army on the basis of a contract which he signed in March 2017.

Intelligence officer Viktor Ageyev, born in 1995, was captured on June 24 following an encounter of fighters from the 93rd Mechanized Brigade and a reconnaissance group of the 4th Mechanized Brigade of the 2nd Army Corps of the LPR (Luhansk People’s Republic).

While commenting on the details of the fight with the LPR’s subversive-reconnaissance group, brigade commander Vladislav Klochkov said that during the encounter, the commander of LPR’s group was killed. The killed commander was regular officer Alexander Shcherbak. The Ukrainian Military headquarters also announced that four LPR fighters had been captured, including a “22 year old Russian citizen, a resident of the Altai Krai”.

A photograph of the captured soldier’s passport and military passbook was published on the Facebook page of ICTV journalist Yulia Kirienko.

According to the information in the military passbook, Viktor Ageyev received secondary vocational education in the Altai State College, specializing as a third class electro gas welder. After completing his studies, he did his compulsory military service in military unit 65246, which is based in Novocherkassk in the Rostov province. He subsequently went to serve in military intelligence on a contractual basis.

Viktor Ageyev also posted on April 1 on his VKontakte (Russian Social Network) page about beginning contractual service. His account on the social network was not under his real name (Ageyev’s acquaintances confirmed the authenticity of the account), and belonged, most notably, to the 4th Motorized Rifle Brigade of the LPR People’s Militia group.

There, and also on his page on the social network Odnoklassniki, he published several of his own photographs with the military intelligence insignia, and also several of his photos in positions with weapons, and without identification markings.

In personal correspondence with a former colleague, when asked whether he was in Ukraine, Viktor Ageyev responded: “Yes, in Ukraine”. When asked what he was doing there, he wrote: “Contractor. Paid enough.”

Journalists contacted Viktor Ageyev’s mother, who identified the documents in the AFU’s possession as belonging to her son.

“I’m worried because he hasn’t contacted me for a very long time,” Svetlana Ageyeva explained, “the last time he called me was on May 30”.

According to her, on the 18th of March 2017 her son signed a contract, and her son’s new location was Bataysk in the Rostov province, where the 22nd special forces brigade of Russia’s Main Intelligence Department was based. Svetlana Ageyeva said that no one from the command had contacted the captured soldier’s family yet.

According to the BBC’s sources in the Ukrainian Defense Ministry, the detained soldier has currently been transferred to the Security Service of Ukraine. The Russian Defense Ministry did not make any comment to BBC regarding the news that the Russian contractor Viktor Ageyev was captured in Ukrainian territory.

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