As the Kremlin-controlled Crimean “media” were forced to admit, with reference to the “press service of the Bank of Russia”, on the occupied peninsula, since the beginning of 2023, “cellular communications have risen in price”, in particular, “the subscription fee has increased”. The aggressor’s propaganda explains these “unexpected innovations’ by the fact that “expenses of operators for infrastructure maintenance equipment” have allegedly increased.
At the same time, in social networks since the beginning of the year, Crimean residents have been pointing out interruptions in illegal mobile communications from the invaders. In particular, it is reported that “from time to time, subscribers of the «Volna mobile» network cannot reach «MTS» subscribers, and vice versa”, and it is indicated that the alleged “cause is an accident on the provider’s network”, which clearly “cannot be eliminated” .
At the same time, the illegal operator “KTK-Telecom”, which uses the “Volna Mobile” brand, as well as its illegal “competitor” “K-Telecom”, hiding behind the “Win Mobile” brand, are controlled by “Ice-invest”, created by Pavel Kuznetsov, the former general director of “Moskovskaya city telephone network”, “daughter” of “MTS”.
Also, this illegal “K-telecom” in 2022 created the criminal structure “+7Mobile”, which began to illegally “provide cellular communication services” in the occupied part of the Kherson and Zaporizhzhya regions, using the seized “Vodafone” equipment.
The fact that “Volna Mobile” and “Win Mobile” are connected with “MTS” is an “open secret” on the occupied peninsula, because, as the Russian invaders themselves are forced to admit, “Crimean and Sevastopol residents use «MTS» SIM cards tied to the Kuban”.
Earlier, we wrote about the large-scale criminal scam of the aggressor to “monopolize” communications in the occupied territories of the South of Ukraine with the participation of another illegal Crimean provider, “Miranda Media”, which, together with “Krymtelecom”, became a subsidiary of the Russian concern “Rostelecom”. The criminal activities of these structures in the occupied Crimea are directly financed by the “Bank of Russia”, that is, the one that has now announced a “price increase”.
In fact, under the guise of “rising prices” and “problems with communications”, one can observe the struggle of the beneficiaries of “MTS” and “Rostelecom” for illegal control over traffic and the mobile communications market of the Russia-occupied territories of the South of Ukraine, in particular within the framework of the actual illegal exploitation of the relevant infrastructure.