If the writer Franz Kafka were alive today, he probably would not be able to describe the state of international relations without falling into an even deeper depression than the one that forced him to write the novels “The Castle” and “The Trial”.
The absurdity that currently dominates international politics offers little hope of an end to the downward spiral.
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Rudeness, bullying, and gangster-like threats have long been instruments of Russian “diplomacy.” We have already gotten used to these manifestations of “Russian culture” and expect nothing more from our eastern neighbor.
However, when states with democratic credentials, previously supportive of Ukraine’s territorial integrity and democratic aspirations, are led by people who seem to champion the law of the jungle and demand respect from the victims of the thuggery they seem to condone, absurdity is the least painful of the resulting circumstances – circumstances that threaten the existence of Ukraine.
The war has also revealed plenty of absurdity inside Ukraine – in the adoption of certain court decisions and the state’s management of municipal property.
For example, the Anti-Corruption Court recently rejected the Ministry of Justice’s demand to confiscate the assets of businessman Oleksiy Popov, who chose to remain in the city of Melitopol after it fell under Russian control.
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Gas stations owned by Popov have been operating in the occupied territories for three years. They were re-registered as Russian companies and are supplied with gas brought from annexed Crimea.
On the journey to the occupied part of Zaporizhzhia region, Popov’s fuel trucks are sometimes escorted by Russian troops. His gas stations are used by both residents and the occupation authorities.
Recently, he expanded and diversified his business interests and started buying and exporting grain from occupied territory – another blatant contravention of Ukrainian law.
Popov’s story matches those of other entrepreneur-collaborators, but there is one particularly interesting detail – he still has a gasoline business in the territories controlled by the Ukrainian government.
What is more, via “his friends”, Popov was able to transfer his 2024 profits from the operation of a fuel depot in the Vinnytsia region, to Crimea – territory controlled by Russia.
In its ruling in Popov’s favor, the Supreme Anti-Corruption Court declared; “There is insufficient evidence that the businessman transferred resources [gasoline] free of charge to representatives of the occupation administration.” The court’s decision does not say a word about the fact of transferring income from a Ukrainian enterprise to territory controlled by Russia.
It must be said that, as a Ukrainian businessman, Popov also pays taxes to the Ukrainian state which, naturally, are used to defend Ukraine from Russia.
Should we see the court’s decision as a signal of acceptance for all businesspeople that remain in the occupied territory who have retained their businesses in Ukrainian held territory?
The number of such entrepreneurs is unknown, but there could be dozens or even hundreds of them. By declaring them all collaborators and confiscating their assets, the courts would be cutting the business elite of the East of the country off from Ukraine.
Allowing this business elite to retain their interests in Ukrainian-controlled territories could be a way to exert influence both on the entrepreneurs and their home areas now and in the future.
Nonetheless, the Russian special services must also be monitoring anyone retaining assets in territory controlled by the Ukrainian government.
Declaring them “business collaborators” would be easy enough, but it could also push these entrepreneurs into becoming political collaborators if they are not that already.
They may more readily go into local government and voluntarily become active supporters of the occupation administrations and of Putin himself.
Could the fear of pushing entrepreneurs in this direction be behind the apparently absurd ruling of the anti-corruption court?
Absurdity often goes hand-in-hand with surrealism and there is plenty of the latter in contemporary Ukraine – phenomena forced upon the country as it does its best to maintain some semblance of normality despite the horrendous war being waged on its territory.
All occupied cities have working Ukrainian administrations located in Ukrainian controlled territory. On their websites, the addresses given for the “military” administrations of the now destroyed Bakhmut or Pokrovsk are the previous physical addresses of those administrations. The actual addresses are not listed on the websites for security reasons.
Ukrainian officials who “virtually” manage the temporarily occupied cities and communities have acquired some unique professional skills that would not normally be required in peacetime.
It is difficult to imagine the criteria for assessing the work of a government official in such conditions, but they exist and even allow the heads of these “virtual” administrations to advance in their careers.
A month ago, for example, Doctor of Philosophy Oleksiy Kharchenko advanced up the civil service career ladder. Until recently, he worked as the head of the military administration of the occupied city of Severodonetsk. In mid-April, he was promoted to head the military administration of the Luhansk region, 95% of which is under Russian occupation.
A parallel, virtual life also continues for Ukrainian commercial airports, whose activities were frozen in February 2022. Their directors and some of their employees continue to go to work and receive salaries – not pilots or flight attendants, of course, but directors, deputy directors, and other administrators and ground specialists.
The acting director of Donetsk Airport receives a small salary for this position – less than €500 ($ 570) a month. But as long as the airport management works, the airport itself can be considered to be, if not operational, then at least “on the state’s balance sheet.”
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