Business in “DPR”: no money, no funny

It has been two years since “DPR” started the so-called “nationalization” of property which used to belong to the Ukrainian state, to local communities and to city residents. To denote this actions, the faction itself uses such words as “a temporary administration has been introduced”, “the property has been nationalized”.

Aleksandr Zakharchenko, “DPR” leader, has not fully understood yet what can be “nationalised” without problems. He said, at the last press-conference, that “DPR” cannot nationalize big plants as it will be impossible to sell their products legally.  This is why, according to Zakharchenko’s words, such companies as Yenakieve Metallurgical Plant can work on occupied territory being run by their Ukrainian owners, but everything can change. In just a few days, “DPR” leader said that its “temporary administration” has already headed Horlivka Machine Building Plant.  Both plants belong to Rinat Akhemtov. One more plant is to be “nationalized”, this is Donetsk Electric and Metallurgical Plant.
Big enterprises are attacked by “DPR” sporadically, but smaller ones like city and town markets are already controlled by the illegal organization. Entrepreneurs go through tough times. Firstly, there is new “tax system” and market workers will have to adapt to it. “Nationalization” does not only mean new owners, it also means new rules and now they depend on the owner and now the owner it “Donbas Markets” company.

“News of Donbas” talked to the workers of Makiivka Central Market. Last week it got new owners. The entrepreneurs working there and the administration of the market have a lot of claims to them:

 - “Donbas Markets” representatives act like criminals and not like civil servants. Last week about fifty people came to the Market, read “DPR legislation on markets nationalization” and says that Central Makiivka Market got a new owner;

- new management already works at the Market but the paper work and other procedures connected with changing the management have not been conducted yet. Ex-workers of the Market are not allowed to enter their offices, they cannot even take their personal belongings;

- new management demands that entrepreneurs should sign contracts with it and rent their work places from it, though the rent has not been set yet. The entrepreneurs emphasise that they still have contracts with the old Market management. The new owner, though, demands the rent for July to be paid to “Donbas Markets” despite the fact that at the beginning of the month it has already been paid to the old Market owners. Besides, the entrepreneurs do not know how they are going to continue their work;

- now, the entrepreneur are made finish their work day at three o’clock. No one explains why the new rule has been introduced. The workers say that this is too early for them. Some of them are waiting for the goods to be delivered, some of them are waiting for more customers and so on;

The situation is similar at Donetsk “Mercury” Market. Unknown people visited it and said that it had been “nationalized” as well. There was a meeting with entrepreneurs then where they expressed their dissatisfaction and asked some questions which new owners failed to answer.

However, a little later, there appeared a video on a separatist channel where “DPR” supporter Konstantin Dolgov asked the market workers who supposedly took part in the rally provocative questions. Dolgov, who has recently come back from the war (at least he said this) where he was a member of “Kalmius” gang, now advertises “DonMak”, a fast food restaurant who was opened on the basis of former “McDonald’s” and looks for cases of corruption among those who protested against “DPR nationalization”. In his opinion, those who protested “sell food of low quality and without any permits”.

“Just a few people want to work with the old management of the Market. They think that it will be possible to continue bribing the old owners, get permits and go on selling bad goods”, thinks “DPR” supporter.

At the same time, one of the entrepreneurs shown in the video said that the new owners had not signed a contract with her yet.

Market workers and owners who stay on the occupied territory have been given a clear signal: if they publicly oppose “DPR” rules, they will be publicly accused of corruption and possibly some other crimes. This is just for the beginning. No one knows how the situation is going to develop as new fines and “taxes” introduced by “DPR” have not been cancelled yet.

Yevhen Volchynnikov

New service "Explain Ukraine". This is a daily mailout of three articles which were written about the situation in the Donbas by Donbas journalists and translated into English. Honest vision of people who work in the field is unbiased and fresh which is crucial in the world which is full of desinformation and propaganda. We try to share this vision in out daily mailout.  You can subscribe here.