Another letter arrived in my e-mail box. It’s from the occupied
territory; Sverdlovsk. I am afraid of these letters. There are more of
them every day. They all contain a tone of bitterness within them.
Though I can’t tell which more so; bitterness or frustration. Perhaps
it’s a tone of bitter frustration, or perhaps an awareness of ones’ own
stupidity. Maybe it’s the feeling of falsity. Or fear.
In stories they contain, there is so much that the mind refuses to
understand. It almost seems beyond the measure of human comprehension to
understand what is happening in the occupied territory.
Sometimes
it seems to me as if these letters are from a movie script, or rather,
what is happening in the occupation zone, is a movie. A frightening
movie based on a brilliant novel, written by an insane person.
But
no, they are real letters, personal voices, and destinies. They tell of
life and death. They are looking into one’s soul with dead eye sockets
from shattered cities. They make you think. They leave permanent scars
for life. I call them notches. How many of them on our family? Nation?
Country? A lot of them. The deepest of them are linked to Russia.
How,
how does it happen that people of one country on genetic level are
afraid of the others? They realize, that all their trouble – hunger,
repression, war, occupation, are the criminal actions of another nation
against another. Yet, somehow, despite this realization, they trust
their executioner? And it doesn’t matter, what year it is, not even what
century.
You will understand, if I’ll tell you two stories. Two seemingly
different stories, but with same essence: Russia is a terrible machine
of Hell, with experienced torturers from around the world,crucifying,
turning into dust the inhabitants of their own country and bringing
closer the day of judgment.
Sverdlovsk. Lugansk region. Russian occupation zone. 2016.
Here
is the data collected by a group of impartial residents of Sverdlovsk
during a four month period from November 2015 to February 2016.
People
die in Sverdlovsk hospitals. The elderly, the lonely, people with
disabilities, disabled children. They die in the hospital and at home,
after a visit from a doctor or nurse. No one gives it a second thought,
except for those physicians who are immune to Russian propaganda, and
the relatives of the deceased, but only sometimes. Most often through,
relatives struck with grief, simply do not realize what actually
happened, and how a loved one on the mend one day, suddenly dies the
next.
And it’s not about the swine flu. No, the flu season in
“LPR” was even a happy coincidence. It was even necessary, as a factor
in explaining the high natural mortality.
At first, no one paid
attention to this mortality. Well, they’re old people, 65 years and
older. Naturally, they’re dying. War, you know, stress, hunger. And
then, people began to pay attention – medical staff and relatives of the
dead, suddenly sick people. A group of impartial citizens established a
“commission”, gathered grain-by-grain terrible facts, which may lead to
criminal prosecution sometime in the future.
Children with
disabilities (cerebral palsy, Down’s syndrome, and others), seniors
without families, those 65 years and older, all of them died as a result
of physician assisted lethal injections, performed without their
consent. Euthanasia is not legal in the “LPR”. No, these physicians are
carrying out an order from the “Health Ministry of LPR”, to reduce the
population eligible for state subsidies.
In the “LPR” there is no
money for pensions, benefits or social security entitlements. To wit, it
was decided to eliminate the recipients.
The “MSS LPR” (Ministry
of State Security) in the “MIA LPR”, the “Prosecutor Office of LPR” has
dozens of statements on file from relatives who became suspicious at the
sudden death of loved ones. Deaths of single people go unreported.
Criminal investigation into the matter and judicial due process is
denied in all of these complaints.
In the city of
Chervonopartyzansk, from January 5th to the 15th, after a visit from a
homecare Registered Nurse who administered injections, all 5 single
disabled people died. Their apartments were robbed. Their burials were
carried out without autopsy or a formal investigation as to the
circumstances of their deaths. There are no forensic laboratories in
“LPR”, as well as reagents.
In Sverdlovsk, relatives of a dead
elderly woman drew attention to the inappropriate behavior of attending
medical staff, who before the woman’s sudden death cynically exclaimed
“it’s high time for her to be at the cemetery, and you are wasting time
with her” resulted in an argument. During the quarrel, the nurse
exclaimed to the patient’s granddaughter “Because of people, like her,
we 55-year-olds, can’t get a pension.” A criminal complaint into the
killing was denied, citing a lack of evidence.
Those without
families are euthanized and robbed. In “LPR”, a bucket of potatoes and a
jar of pickles costs money. People with disabilities and pensioners
receive two living subsidies – a Ukrainian portion in UAH and
“lenerovskuyu” in Russian rubles.
The old, sick, and those without
relatives, who are eligible for pension payments, wind up on the list
for reducing the contingent and are simply killed. After all, they are
people with disabilities, the elderly, and pensioners; in short, a
third-rate population. No one will find out. No one will sort any of it
out on their behalf. They merely stand in the way of the living.
One
can justify everything. People there, in the occupied zone, blinded by
propaganda and hatred towards each other, are willing to kill. To kill
and justify murder.
First, they justified the killing of
Ukrainians by Russian troops, “after all, it is liberation”, then they
justified crimes committed by marauding militias, “after all, they are
Our Guys”. Then they crossed the line. When one can justify everything,
even own stupidity, betrayal, crime and lack of forethought.
Until
recently, women, who reached 55 years of age, were ecstatic when
Plotnickij adopt a “law”, which entitled them to a pension. As a result,
the number of pension seekers in the city increased in three months to
4,000. And this is just in one of the occupied cities.
Russian
administrators apparently began to backtrack. They, most likely, didn’t
like this “pension abundance”. First time pension applicants under the
new criteria were refused under any pretext and denied these
entitlements. Pensions, previously assigned in the “LNR”, still continue
to be paid.
Bureaucratic roadblocks are nothing new. Before the
war, the pension fund also delayed or outright denied pension
disbursements. Everything from an incorrect stamp on a submission form,
or an incorrect certificate format, or contention of a claimants’ length
of service, was routine cause. But then, the courts were able to step
in to protect people, and after a formal hearing, pensions were granted.
Now in the “LPR” there is no recourse to justice, and those whose
pension claims are denied are forced into an embittered life.
Anger,
hatred for their lack of forethought, their faith in Russia, insulted
by Russia itself, for desires, not fulfilled by war – those are some of
the feelings the fans of the so-called “Russian World” in the “LPR”
have. Succumb to propaganda, buying into the notion that they will live
in the by-gone ghostly heaven – USSR, now they experiencing
post-traumatic neurosis, realizing, with their own hands they have
chosen their own destiny – to live in “Transnistria-2”.
Aid
stations, hospitals, pharmacies are closing. State employees are paid
less than in Ukraine, and less than in Russia. The cornucopia promised
by Russian propagandists, once again, spat stale fumes in the face of
its “Younger Brother”.
Minimizing the existing number of entitled
people, in order to have sufficient funds to out pay to new pensioners,
is a good move, a Russian move. In the sphere of what is happening.
With all what is happening in the Donbas – a pandemic of syphilis, AIDS,
HIV infections, gonorrhea, hepatitis, herpes, tuberculosis, viral
pneumonia, I have a feeling that Russia needs territory. Just the land,
nothing more.
Olena Stepova,
Ukraine
Translated from Russian by Luba Romanko from original post on Olena Stepova blog
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