Life Inside Putin’s Crimea

[Music] [Music] this is Crimea in early 2017 nearly three years after the Russian takeover it is the day of the founders of the fatherland in other words a very patriotic celebration exactly for the people of Sebastopol who you Thursday to celebrate their pride in Russia delusion upon you March till you see the preschool would you do mr. widgets for coupons TechnoMarine rockets of occupatus in missoula soy Buber the vanishing of the Maire see you Nancy diode naturally honest at cheesier e natural muesli inertia Buddha she about nowit's ric in a controversial referendum even 95% of crimeans voted to join Russia in 2014 the annexation and the referendum are not recognized internationally many of the crimeans we met were eager to obtain their Russian citizenship but there s Iranian Sherpa today ownership is perfect on windy Street in the spelling her CLE Nastya a lot of crimeans are hoping for a return to the peninsula's glory days when it was known as a popular tourist destination for Sevilla illipe vacationing along the Black Sea coast we're in the southern town of a loose tow which has seen a massive amount of development over the last three years that's largely thanks to a mr. alexander leather leather dev is a russian billionaire with a combative reputation [Music] he spotted an opportunity for an energetic tycoon like himself you're building in charge of building a theater you're building a clinic you're building hotels yeah you ain't pretty much all of this then yep this is an investment of about 200 million euro dollar it's whatever and I've never picked up a penny of profit I love the place and I treated as a mission I picked up a few missions in life it's always better to put some butter I was here why is it that Russia's so focused on developing Crimea wallah I have no doubt that Putin is very much interested to show result in Crimea let's beyond any doubt he has something to prove here no the whole Russian nation has something to prove here and what is that they need to prove that they'll be running the place much better than it was run by Ukraine Ukraine neglects it's completely Crimea and so what the Russians are doing they're investing ten times of twenty times more money into infrastructure even putting back all of the tourists within such a short period of time the projected boom in tourism that Russia support would bring excited a lot of local business owners people like Oleg supercar who runs a safari park kanchanaburi Zawadi tabouleh join team patria TV few stones Kotori me moons three HTTP decode criminals are stuff without living together misty misty yeah you sure yes I heard you wanted these beasts play a role in my mayor's return to Russia the Pravda he said we wish to diminish the granita Tony way Valley pursue Christ if not Sonali stay means Kotori luckily last ruski paddy tom is in storage which is the most terrible Tommy Ponderosa Polly movies does means PAGASA live off the zip cost initial enthusiasm for Russian Crimea symptoms of disillusionment when his business began to suffer how much does your business down by establish a tower of humor Kotori will skunk remove odd not reach an upper those written in short sir why do you think that is the tourist numbers are down no apparently polish did you see these grains co-op autocracy wouldn't you see what you see worth one year trim knuckle it supposedly artsy enough will it support those thoughts or skinny some famous more boring than the different tourists though is the fact that Crimea is running dry in large part because in 2014 Ukraine dammed the north Crimean canal which previously provided 85% of the peninsula's fresh water a tabular drama degranulation savonia body at Prost over the craziest Alice Merren Kaluga what a body nom watch it energy emissions yeah demonstrable Strada at which energy is usually gurad off yes the problem private is to illustrate that you do give her over the region but the Kremlin says it has a solution to the water problem the tourist problem and just about every other problem in the peninsula the Kerch bridge we visited or construction was still ongoing we're standing on the biggest bridge in Russian history it's gonna be 12 miles long it stretches all the way from Russian mainland which is just over there to Crimea President Putin triumphantly opened the mega project earlier this year it was immediately resulted Kotori Gilead pretty little darling' she was toppled his shooting near of sickness you should believe droop droop now that Russia has further cemented its grip on Crimea both physically and symbolically we traveled to Ukraine's capital Kiev to meet the people still pushing for you vacation [Music] and the more people very nationalistic crowd there's a lot of far-right militias who are coming here to make their voices heard [Music] Luciana Ukraine signature Melissa do the crocodiles for me over tides the swallow Karina Ukraine's coho that's over open neva hard to build she you make you do you think the Ukraine can take premier back minister the hangover of Crimea only emboldened these far-right militia groups many of whom are actively fighting Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine where a bloody conflict has claimed over 10,000 lives since 2014 but other Ukrainians have focused on curbing the Kremlin soft power Ukraine is currently home to over one-third of Russian Orthodox churches which are often criticized for being vessels for Putin's propaganda but in a historic decision Orthodox leadership finally agreed to grant the Ukrainian church independence from Moscow help to unite all the craniums in one nation how did the situation where the annexation of Crimea impacts what's happening now Ukrainian people they are usually quite patient but step by step Russia show little aggression Aintree have to fight back [Applause] [Music] [Applause] we arrived here have at a very opportune moment because the president is about to make his first speech to union people to talk about the Declaration of infants of the Ukrainian church from the russian orthodox church over my president ocarina but rho poroshenko say FeliCa paramore volvo appliance Colorado that was ghost in a demurrer my samus's ship in shipwreck analysis chauffeur mr. toeffler here the minister she will alimentives a palooka Nezalezhnosti nationally there's a [Applause] [Music] [Applause] this is about more than religion a hwhile ukrainian parishioners attended Sunday Mass President Putin took the news as a major blow the Kremlin immediately denounced the church's decision and even said it would defend Russian believers is threatened in Ukraine sparking real fears of further violence the fear of escalating conflict rang true just this week Russia shota and sees three Ukrainian ships and 24 sailors who are in the shared waterway of the Kerch Strait Moscow has maintained a geostrategic naval base on the peninsula for decades allowing them to reach Eastern Europe the Mediterranean and Syria as part of an effort to monitor the militarization in the region Ukraine established the Ministry of temporarily occupied territories and IDPs headed by Vadim Spanish so what can you tell us about any military for example the right places were asked four hundred team conflicts established by Russians so from your satellite images he picked up three new missile bases here right they can reach a lot of countries including Middle East they use Crimea's and military base so essentially this ministry was formed in order to try and take back what Ukraine Caesar's occupied territories including Crimea what actual work are you doing to achieve those goals we are trying to win hearts and minds of Ukrainians only within occupied territories it's not a bit late for that if most people are now happy with the fact that Russia has taken Crimea we have been trying to support our population because their Ukrainian citizens Russia influence a lot they do use their secret service they use their propaganda bribes they demonstrate some some success in infrastructure development and they don't want to show problems in human worth human rights in Crimea Russia's abysmal human rights record has trickled down to Crimea eating the u.s. to announce additional sanctions in November 2018 here in Kiev at the Crimean human rights group works to collect testimonies and evidence of illegal detention and torture alexander scoot across the scales remember pre-release resource in europe alone school code a minimum boom Aleksandr Castillo was eventually moved to a prison and held for over three years of assault and possession of illegal weapons [Music] [Music] the team here has documented dozens of cases like this one the founder Olga's trip Nick was also forced to see her home in Crimea in 2014 what kind of activities were these people involved in in order to get picked up by the Russian authorities maybe she's sick today one envelope of Yasin uzuki mastectomy for more magenta concocted nice tits and apricot Shana listable blow hearing about some activists a post office to polyprotic occupied she Jana pre-code volodymyr below even cross the pitiful Krinsky proper lastly I'm Adam of Scilly illustrate rests a protein your pocket cruelly criminal is proud recently I think better or worse Peruvian on Oprah question article broken no visa not steric kilkis tequila def con azúcar no post bubble any volatility for today Soros Lafayette Rajeev there's almost no reliable data on what's actually going on in Crimea and Russia holds a tight grip over all information coming out recently even traveling to the peninsula has become difficult so we wanted to catch up with Oleg sukhovka zookeeper to ask if things really have become worse has there been any change in atmosphere there I mean now that the Russians have been there for four years [Music] yelling move on your feet besides I got a good developer by ear let Elizabeth Eugene equipment with all this worth it bring in it yeah I mean I used to be email [Music] you

Channel: VICE News

Views: 2,867,271

Rating: 4.5378361 out of 5

Keywords: VICE News, VICE News Tonight, VICE on HBO, news, vice video, vice news 2019, isobel yeung, isobel yeung vice, Crimea, putin crimea annexation, Putin Crimea, Ukraine, Russia Ukraine, Vladmir Putin, Vladmir Putin Crimea, crimea crisis, international news, vice international, Volodymyr Zelensky, Petro Poroshenko, european solidarity, ukraine politics, ukraine president, corruption ukraine, Russia Ukraine conflict, ukranian crimea, russian crimea, russia olympics

Id: lzO7gIT5GYU

Length: 14min 16sec (856 seconds)

Published: Mon Dec 09 2019

Reddit Comments

[u/D1ss_666]

RuSSia is a country of terrorists

[u/HypnotizedNeverLie]

Interesting video - thanks for posting!

Also interesting to see how comments redirecting attention away from Crimea and over to America from users who normally do not post on this sub have started to pop up here.

[u/[deleted]]

You have freedom under Russia. And by freedom I mean you are free to say what putin wants you to say and do what putin want you to do. So yeah you are free.

[u/matt6060]

The last part scares me

[u/Delija56]

Dang, that far-right crowd and the neo-nazis worry me

[u/Sirko122]

Great post. Haven't seen a good Vice video in awhile.