Simferopol (Interfax-Ukraine) – According to the head of the Tavrida Institute of Regional Development, the well-known economist Andriy Klymenko, the problems of the Artek International Children Center (ICC) are connected to attempts to bankrupt it, as the 200-hectare site it occupies are wanted by shady property developers.
The head of the institute said that as of 2008 in Crimea there was practically no land “which can be easily taken: those having access to administrative resources have already laid their hands on practically all of the land in the area”.
According to Klymenko, from 2002 until the middle of 2008, land price in the south of Crimea have significantly increased and reached $30,000-50,000 per 100 square meters, and even $70,000 in some places.
In this regard, Klymenko said, “these people will now try to conquer a) natural reserves; b) vineyards; c) all objects as yet unreachable, which means the Vorontsov, Massandra, Lyvada palaces, the Yalta reserve, and various parks and monuments”.
“The issue of Artek is a logical consequence of that process,” he said.
Klymenko also spoke of the case in 2004 of the Glitsyniya sanatorium being sold through Artek to Vneshtorgbank (Russia). First, it was appropriated by Artek, and then the center sold it. In 2005, following intervention from the National Security Council of Ukraine, the process was stopped. In 2006, the Economic Court of Kyiv nullified the purchase agreement and obliged Vneshtorgbank to return all the buildings of the sanatorium to Artek, and asked the center to return UAH 36 million. This debt has not been paid, which makes the issue even more difficult.
“I think that today, as the issue with Artek has received a lot of media attention, this scheme of bankruptcy is going to fail. But that does not mean that there won’t be any further attempts in the future. What will happen? The illegal corporate seizure techniques used in Ukraine are almost perfect,” Klymenko said.
“The only thing that might save Artek as a landmark of Crimea is an independent press and society, which has to keep an eye on everything,” he concluded.
