“Grain Deals”: Criminal Interests of Crimean Collaborators

The creation of safe corridors for the export of Ukrainian grain has become a priority task for the Ukrainian authorities, since the blocking of sea ports by the aggressor state has called into question the food security of a large number of countries in the world. After the explosions on the “Crimean bridge”, the Kremlin tried to disrupt the so-called “grain agreements”, but fortunately the world community managed to prevent these plans, and the “corridors” continue to function successfully.

Crimean collaborators who tried to use “grain deals” for personal gain also played a role in the actions of the Kremlin regarding the food crisis. Although it must be admitted that in this case their actions and statements were more veiled, on the contrary, a clear interest in this issue can be seen in them.

The Kremlin probably made it clear that there are issues that will be resolved without their proteges in the occupied Crimea. Experts of the Association of Reintegration of Crimea analyzed the situation and tried to outline the sphere of interests of the Crimean collaborators in the matter of the disruption of the “grain agreements”.

Let’s start with the fact that in Russia, after the explosion on the “Crimean bridge” they announced that the explosion was carried out allegedly “using a grain truck”. According to the criminal statements of the aggressor’s special services, the grain truck with explosives allegedly “set out from the port of Odesa” [1]. That is, almost immediately the Kremlin tried to connect the explosion with the grain corridors, which indicates a direct desire to disrupt agreements on the export of Ukrainian grain. In fact, the Ukrainian authorities have warned the world about Putin’s intentions to disrupt the “grain deals” and use them as an element of blackmail at the “G20” summit.

It is also worth considering that for the Kremlin, the problem of exporting its own agricultural products and fertilizers, which Russia cannot sell on the world market as a result of the imposed sanctions, is relevant [2]. It should be assumed that the Kremlin plans to lobby for the cancellation of these sanctions in order to save the situation in its own “national economy”. There have even been provocative statements that Russia is allegedly “ready to transfer its own grain to the poorest African countries free of charge” [3].

There is a certain feature of “grain deals”, which many experts emphasize. It is about the process of determining the routes of “security corridors”. In parallel with this, there are norms in the agreements, which indicate that activities in Ukrainian territorial waters are carried out under the authority of Ukraine. This means recognizing the extension of Ukraine’s jurisdiction over the sea in the waters of the occupied Crimea [4]. According to the position of the UN and Turkey, which reflects reality, the Crimea is, of course, the territory of Ukraine, which was not rejected in any way even in the norms of the “grain agreements”. However, for the aggressor and the Crimean collaborators, criminal speculation by their norms is another fake attempt to “raise the Crimean issue”.

It is from this “position” that the Kremlin plans to proceed in “future negotiations” with Ukraine. The fact is that Russian propaganda spreads the narrative in the world community about the conclusion of “grain agreements” and the easing of the economic blockade of Ukraine, as if it were a “demonstration of Russia’s readiness for peace negotiations” [5]. It seems very likely that the activity of the Armed Forces of Ukraine scared the Crimean collaborators, who want their Kremlin curators to agree on some “security guarantees” at the negotiating table.

After the explosions on the ships of the Black Sea Fleet, the aggressor immediately announced about supposedly “marine drones” that “were following the route of peaceful grain corridors” [6]. Of course, this issue was not without an “economic component”, which is almost always present in the actions of Crimean collaborators. We are talking about the “sale” of Ukrainian grain, which was criminally transferred to the occupied Crimea from the territories of the Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions temporarily seized by the aggressor, that is, appropriated by the aggressor, who organized a kind of “transit transfer point” in the occupied Crimea.

The self-proclaimed “head of Crimea” Serhey Aksyonov has repeatedly stated this. He recognized the criminal fact of “selling” stolen grain, but noted that the occupied Crimea supposedly “provides itself with grain crops independently” [7]. This is very similar to a failed attempt to “vindicate” the Kremlin’s war crimes in Ukraine to the world. However, it is hard to believe that the Crimean collaborators will not use the chance to criminally enrich themselves at the expense of stolen grain.

And this is confirmed by the criminal intentions “to sell grain to Syria” announced shortly before the full-scale invasion. The same Serhey Aksyonov even mentioned the volume of such criminal “supplies” – up to 2 million tons per year. Illegal plans to “create a joint transport shipping company” were also announced, which would supposedly “load” the ports of the occupied Crimea.

In particular, according to the statements of the Ukrainian authorities, Russia has already criminally transferred half a million tons of stolen grain through the occupied Crimea, including to Syria [8]. With a high probability, the illegal “agreements” of the aggressor with the Assad regime have acquired a “practical embodiment”, and then the question arises whether the role of the Crimean collaborators is actually so secondary.

Or they did criminally create “transport shipping companies” and earn money on stolen grain. This should be especially taken into account against the background of the manipulative statements of the self-proclaimed “authorities” of the Crimea about the “record grain harvest in August of this year”, which is supposedly “a third more than last year” [9]. This is very reminiscent of a criminal attempt to appropriate the grain transferred from the newly occupied Ukrainian territories and subsequently “sell” it to states that have “friendly relations” with Russia.

This explains why the Crimean collaborators spoke so actively about the need for Russia to withdraw from the “grain agreements”. In addition to this, we note that international observers pointed to the vessel “Laodicea”, which belongs to Syria and is under US sanctions. On this ship, the occupiers were illegally transporting Ukrainian grain to Lebanon from the shores of the occupied Crimea [10]. For its part, Ukraine calls on the whole world not to buy stolen grain, but the political regimes supported by the Kremlin, including Bashar Assad’s regime, criminally ignore these appeals and actively develop “trade” contrary to the norms of international law [11].

Crimean collaborators criminally use these processes for “self-affirmation” and try to promote the occupied peninsula as a kind of “transit hub” for the Kremlin [12]. It should be assumed that the Kremlin’s attempt to disrupt the “grain agreements” among other things is caused by a criminal desire to destroy the economy of Ukraine, since a significant part of Ukrainian exports is the agricultural sector [13].

This is fully included in the criminal “doctrine” of the Crimean collaborators, who understand that at the expense of the stolen harvest it is possible to affect the total shortage of food products in the territory, illegally controlled by the aggressor. Another clear argument in favor of the Kremlin’s termination of the “grain agreements” is the desire to maintain extremely high prices on the world grain market.

For the Crimean collaborators, this “argument” is also important, because they seek to criminally “sell” stolen Ukrainian grain at inflated prices, receiving excess profits from the world food crisis. The fact is that the opening of grain corridors made it possible to stabilize and even lower prices in the world agricultural market [14]. It is clear that such a trend is unlikely to please the self-proclaimed “authorities” from the Crimea and its curators from Moscow.

The “personal interest” of the Crimean collaborators in the “grain issue” is confirmed by the events of the past years of the occupation, when “Aksyonov and company” essentially criminally appropriated the entire agribusiness in the Crimea. The fact is that the lion’s share of agrarian business in the occupied Crimea is one way or another connected with Crimean collaborators, who as early as 2014 began to intimidate local agricultural producers and carry out criminal raiding of entire enterprises.

For this purpose, Serhey Aksyonov used the criminal “Crimean self-defense units” that took grain by force. But at the very least, the “purchase prices” were significantly understated, which allowed the Crimean collaborators to “earn” well and criminally. Price “swings” undoubtedly benefit the Crimean traitors, because after the Kremlin announced its intention to withdraw from the “grain agreements”, the world market instantly reacted to this event with a 5% jump in grain prices [15].

Under such conditions, the self-proclaimed Crimean “authorities” intensified the sale of stolen Ukrainian grain, involving lower-level traitors in this process. Recently, the Security Service of Ukraine exposed at least two such traitors who are involved in the transfer and sale of stolen Ukrainian grain. We are talking about Volodymyr Tregubov and Yuriy Mihal, who previously criminally “headed the local administrations” of the “Sovietsky and Rosdolensky districts” of the occupied peninsula.

Recently, the occupiers criminally “appointed” Tregubov as a fake “minister of internal policy, information and communication”, and Mihal illegally “holds the position” of a fake “minister of agriculture”. The mentioned persons, on the criminal “assignment” of Serhey Aksyonov, “dealt with the issue” of grain transfer from the occupied territories of the Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions to the occupied Crimea [16]. That is, we have a clearly planned criminal activity of Crimean collaborators, directed against Ukraine and the whole world. Of course, all this happens under the auspices of the Kremlin, which is also interested in selling stolen Ukrainian grain.

But we noted that in the “grain issue” the Crimean collaborators sometimes “cautiously” try to express their position. Most likely, this is due to the “level of interests”. That is, the Kremlin does not always allow its puppets to comment on “issues of this level”. For example, this concerns the resumption of the “export” of fertilizers by Russia, which has already been mentioned many times [17]. Although even here the Crimean collaborators may have a personal “interest”. Thus, since 2014, Serhey Aksyonov has expressed a criminal ‘interest” in the “Crimean Titan” plant, which can potentially produce mineral fertilizers [18], [19], and now the corresponding rhetoric of the collaborator has “intensified”.

Therefore, it is likely that the Crimean collaborators, in the event of the lifting of sanctions on Russian fertilizers, also plan to criminally transport “Crimean products” to Syria and Lebanon under their guise, as well as Ukrainian stolen grain, and earn excess profits from this. It is very interesting that certain “top officials” of the aggressor evade statements regarding the criminal “sale” of grain transferred from the occupied Ukrainian territories. In particular, when foreign journalists asked Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov about grain stolen in Ukraine, he tried not to give a “direct answer”.

Meanwhile, analysts are pondering the consequences of Russia’s withdrawal from the “grain agreements”. He would once again prove that the Kremlin cannot be trusted, because the Russian government will definitely not fulfill its international obligations. Additional grain stocks in the controlled territory of Ukraine and activation of grain processing spheres there are discussed [20].

However, in the global security space, the meaning of “grain agreements” is quite important, because it concerns numerous countries of the world, which today, as a result of Russian blackmail, are on the verge of a humanitarian crisis.

Their food security directly depends on Ukrainian grain, which has become the subject of “political” manipulations in which Crimean collaborators are directly involved. Although after the liberation of Kherson, the latter must have already “forgotten” about the grain, because they are busy with the criminal preparation of the occupied peninsula for “defense”. In particular, currently, according to Serhey Aksyonov, the construction of “fortification structures” is taking place, which, of course, does not guarantee the “security of the Crimean residents”, but the temporary “self-confidence” of the traitors themselves, who sense the approach of deoccupation [21]. But we will devote a separate article to this issue.

Thus, “grain agreements” are important for Ukraine and the entire civilized world, which is aware of the consequences of the global food crisis. For the Kremlin, they are the subject of political blackmail of the civilized world itself, which is carried out in order to promote Russian criminal narratives and economic interests.

The Crimean collaborators are quite interested in the criminal exit of the aggressor from the agreements regarding the security “grain corridors”. This is due to a number of their illegal “political and economic interests”. “Political interests” are connected with the fear of the de-occupation of Crimea, that is, the Crimean collaborators “hope” that the termination of the “grain agreements” will slow down the advance of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. The “economic component” consists in the desire to get criminally rich by selling stolen Ukrainian grain to Asian and African regimes that are supported by the Kremlin.

Sources:

1. https://www.rbc.ua/rus/news/hoche-zirvati-ugodu-putin-zagovoriv-pidriv-1665752826.html
2. https://www.obozrevatel.com/ukr/politics-news/shantazh-zernom-provalivsya-yak-rosiyu-vchergove-postavili-na-mistse-erdogan-i-ko.htm
3. https://podrobnosti.ua/2460287-rosja-vijshla-z-zernovo-ugodi-cherez-novu-serju-vibuhv-u-krimu-podrobits.html
4. https://www.epravda.com.ua/columns/2022/07/23/689535/
5. https://www.kyivschina24.com/news/vyrishalna-bytva-bude-ne-za-herson-a-za-lanczyugy-postavok-ekonomist-ta-geopolityk/
6. https://nv.ua/ukr/opinion/zernova-ugoda-portnikov-pro-te-yak-putin-vikoristovuye-krim-golod-ostanni-novini-50280956.html
7. https://donpatriot.news/article/v-okupaciyniy-administraciyi-krimu-viznali-scho-rosiyani-prodayut-u-sevastopoli-kradene-zerno
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9. https://korrespondent.net/ukraine/4504631-hauliaiter-kryma-obiavyl-o-rekordnom-urozhae-zernovykh
10. https://forbes.ua/news/rosiya-vid-pochatku-viyni-vivezla-z-ukraini-zerna-shchonaymenshe-na-530-mln-ar-04102022-8749
11. https://www.radiosvoboda.org/a/news-aksionov-zerno-krym/31899721.html
12. https://www.pravda.com.ua/rus/news/2022/10/29/7374113/
13. https://www.radiosvoboda.org/a/novyny-pryazovya-fermery-okupatsiya-biznes/32016854.html
14. https://latifundist.com/blog/read/2927-osiyi-ne-vigidni-zernovi-koridori-poyasnyuyemo-chomu-i-yak-prohodit-pidtasovka-faktiv
15. https://zn.ua/WORLD/posle-vykhoda-rf-iz-zernovoho-sohlashenija-pshenitsa-podorozhala-na-5.html
16. https://portal.lviv.ua/news/2022/09/21/sbu-pidozriuie-krymskykh-ministriv-u-kolabortsionizmi
17. https://www.radiosvoboda.org/a/ukrayina-rosiya-oon-turechchyna-zerno-uhoda-eksport/32110939.html
18. https://www.epravda.com.ua/news/2014/05/19/454674/
19. https://www.radiosvoboda.org/a/krymskyj-arxiv-rozsliduvannia-3-3/30332554.html
20. https://ua.korrespondent.net/articles/4530873-komu-vyhidno-rozirvannia-zernovoi-uhody
21. https://www.dw.com/ru/v-krymu-vozvodat-fortifikacionnye-sooruzenia/a-63812688