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Ukrainian sailors, based with the Russian Black Sea fleet in Sevastopol, take a break. Many in the port city don't believe conflict is looming between Russia and Ukraine over Crimea. Residents also dispel fears that war will break out, like in Georgia. Boris Belkin Despite its Soviet mood, city residents of all backgrounds live in peace, contrary to the alarmist scenarios imagined by outsiders in the wake of the Caucasus war

fleet in Crimea, with nostalgia for old glories. Yet despite its Soviet mood, city residents of all backgrounds live in peace, contrary to the alarmist scenarios imagined by outsiders in the wake of the Caucasus war.

Dotted with small tour boats, the port is framed by three black navy ships pressed against the skyline. A friendly Ukrainian tour boat captain in his early 30s, wearing a New York City T­shirt, explains that every ship in the country’s territorial waters must sail under the Ukrainian blue­and­yellow flag in addition to its home colors. Yet, white Soviet navy banners with a hammer and sickle, a red star and a blue stripe dominate most bows in this bay.

“Oh, these are just beautiful,” explains the captain, when asked why the Soviet flag is five times larger than the nation’s blue­and­yellow rectangular cloth hardly visible above his cabin.

Even though the summer season is barely over, remarkably few sailors – one of the city's biggest attractions – are walking the streets.

“You won’t find them here now,” says former admiral Vladimir Komoedov who was in charge of the Russian part of the fleet right after the breakup of the Soviet Union. “They are at war.”

Watching the tour boats circling the bay, the commander denies speculation that there is a conflict simmering in the Crimea in light of the Russian­Georgian conflict in South Ossetia and Abkhazia.

Pointing to the monument of the sunken ships rising from the water, Komoedov says that every stone in Sevastopol is covered in blood.

“This city has been founded by the fleet and for the fleet. During the 225 years since its inception, English, French, Turkish, and German navy [vessels] among others waged wars here. We don’t want it to happen again.”

But there’s still tension.

Now a deputy in the Russian State Duma, the lower house of parliament, Komoedov describes Kyiv’s attempts to promote Ukrainian language and NATO membership as “genocide against its own people in the Crimea.”

Even the deputy head of city administration, Dmytro Bazev, who represents President Victor Yuschenko in Sevastopol, speaks Russian as his first language. He says that Ukrainian language is mandatory only for official state documentation and certain school lessons.

“If residents petition in Russian, I answer them in Russian. In line with the latest ruling of the Constitutional Court, even courts must accommodate Russian speakers. I think it’s the Ukrainian language that needs help here, not Russian.”

Bazev says that Sevastopol cannot be compared to Georgian breakaway republics. “Only a handful of pro­Russian NGOs [non­governmental organizations], wives of serving sailors and some veterans breed separatist moods here. We know them by names. They are financed by Russia and even compete among themselves for more funding.”

People’s sentiments lie with the Crimea, not their passports. The majority of Russian navy officers, he says, adopt Ukrainian citizenship upon retirement to stay with their families on the peninsula.

Rossiyskaya Obshchina (Russian Community) NGO is one of those “separatist” groups that Bazev once took to court on allegations of spreading chauvinism in Sevastopol. He says that the case was toned down, and its leaders walked away with a warning.

This NGO is working in the House of Officers, a Soviet­style building that also hosts a handful of hobby clubs.

Raisa Telyatnykova, who founded Russian Community at the breakup of the Soviet Union, runs her office above a dancing club next to an acting school.

Surrounded by Russian flags, she claims more than 97 per cent of people of Sevastopol supported Russia’s actions in Georgia.

“The situation in the Crimea will depend on President Yushchenko. But I don’t think we’ll be shooting each other.”

She rules out a repeat of the Caucasus scenario in the Crimea because in the breakaway republics “their Presidents, the governments and the people were united in breaking apart from Georgia. No such unity here.”

However, she thinks that it will be difficult to contain the people in Sevastopol in case Ukraine signs the Membership Action Plan with NATO. She predicts civil unrest.

Telyatnykova denies receiving any financial aid from Russia except subsidies to her publication, and says she lives on her pension.

“The city of Moscow only helps us to print a newspaper twice a month.”

She explains the presence of Yedinaya Rossiya (United Russia) party flag in her office as a sign of friendship and cooperation between her community and the largest party in the State Duma. Rossiyskaya Obshchina is often blamed by other local political players for exploiting patriotic feelings of the fleet veterans and turning them against the state of Ukraine.

“[Yuriy] Luzhkov (mayor of Moscow) is a good businessman. He invests plenty of money into real estate here and various social projects under the pretense of friendly ties,” says Valery Vasunyn from Byut, Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko’s bloc.

Russia’s helping hand is very visible in Sevastopol. The fleet employs more than 20, 000 Ukrainian citizens at its ship repair factory, the hospital, and the bakery among others. The people in town make no secret that Russian companies pay twice as much as the Ukrainian employers.

The northern neighbor renovated derelict navy barracks and turned them into the Black Sea branch of the Moscow State Humanitarian University. Tour guides sailing through the southern tip of the bay, home to Russia’s Black Sea Fleet, mention that the current mayor of Moscow is Yuriy Luzhkov, failing to explain his relevance to the tour of the Crimean coast.

Luzhkov has publicly questioned Ukraine’s territorial rights to Crimea, arguing it has historically been a part of Russia. Despite the overwhelming Russian presence in Sevastopol, the city council does not question Ukraine’s territorial rights over the city and the Crimean peninsula. Nevertheless, the Party of Regions, which has a crushing majority in the city assembly, speculates that conflicts may occur if Western leaders encourage Ukraine’s closer ties with NATO.

“Propagating Ukraine’s accession into NATO, [German] Chancellor [Angela] Merkel is stirring up a civil war in Ukraine,” said Valery Saratov, head of the Party of Regions in Sevastopol, referring to the latest statements by the German leader calling on NATO members to sign MAP with Ukraine and Germany.

It seems that the politicians are more paranoid about war than the town residents. Russian and Ukrainian sailors live side by side with each other, parade together, and, over hearty evenings with beer, they say they would never strike against each other.

“We are not going to kill our brothers. If anything happens here, mercenaries will be involved, not the locals,” says Oleksandr Gnopovskiy, an air defense forces officer.

Former admiral Komoedov says Sevastopol is like a small map of the Soviet Union. Russian, Georgian, Armenian sailors – the city face has mixed ethnicity.

And his prediction of events leans toward the optimistic.

“Russia is prepared to withdraw the fleet on time without disputing the integrity of the Crimea as long as the Ukrainian leaders keep the gunpowder dry,” says Komoedov, referring to the rights of ethnic Russians on the peninsula.