Time passes and from time to time our Abkhazians and Ossetians consciously or unconsciously are themselves telling us truth about tabooed issues and step-by-step are saying things that one does not even say during an interrogation.
So much was said and written by the club of Experts about disappearance into thin air of funds allotted by Russia to the occupied Tskhinvali region that recounting all of them will stray us from the subject. It seems that there is nothing else there to be said but Tskhinvalians themselves us assisting us. It seems that they themselves are tired of so many lies. As you have probably realized it all concerns constructions in Tskhinvali that are still not completed.
Now another one to feel remorse was became "mayor" of Tskhinvali Gerasime (Rezo) Khugaev. Wishing to have clear conscience before residents of his town he had to lift the curtain on those secrets that were long kept by Kokoity regime and the Kremlin.
According to Khugaev, despite the fact that Russia is boasting about its allocation of billions to Tskhinvali it turns out that all this is happening only on the paper. Khugaev says that out of those 4.3 billion rubles, allocation of which was widely advertised by Moscow all over the world, Tskhinvali has not received even a dime. "We can say more, over 7 billion rubles was allotted on the paper for restoration of destroyed houses and infrastructure but not a dime was seen from this sum. And this figure was included back in the last year's Russian budget. And now the entire republic lives on those budget surplus that we salvaged from last year – around one billion rubles" – says Khugaev in an interview with internet publication RUSNORD.
Khugaev directly points to Russia and announces that "money is being lost at the highest levels of the Russian financial circles. Russian leadership is sending money to South Ossetia and this money is not reaching us...".
Khugaev also confirms money-laundering schemes that we have described in the previous articles. According to him, Russian government bodies have their own projects and tasks and are very little interested in position of Tskhinvali and common sense.
"If I were able to personally talk to Minister of Regional Development of Russia Basargin I would ask him why is that money is allotted for restoration of people's accommodations but people still live in tents after all this time? Why is it happening that we cannot rebuild their houses for two years now when it is very easy to realize projects that are worth billions and which are found by the Ministry of Regional development of Russia itself and are foisted on us against our common sense? And all this is happening without consulting the authorities. Construction workers are commencing some works and I am unable to have any affect on it". – says Khugaev and brings several examples of as to how Russian bodies are stealing money.
The Club of Experts wrote about the condition in which journalist of Radio Ekho Moskvi found Tskhinvali when the latter accompanied Russian Deputy Prime Minister Igor Shuvalov during his visit to Abkhazia and Tskhinvali region. While describing works done in Tskhinvali the journalist especially mentioned that new roofs were put to the entire Tskhinvali. And Khugaev negated even this. According to him, in 2008-2009 by orders of the Russian Ministry of Regional Development all multi-storied apartment blocks were newly roofed. Although resident of Tskhinvali have nothing to be excited about as "water is leaking through 90% of these roofs. People are coming to me complain to and they do not care that all this was done without my consent ".
"In the end, everything was done so ... (Khugaev paused searching for a right word – RUSNORD) uselessly that today water is coming down the walls in 70 multi-storied blocks (the publication mentions that it rains in Tskhinvali every day), there is mould and fungus in hundreds of apartments!!! (...). There were facts when roofs were put to houses and volume of the work was increased not by two or three times but twenty times!!! And now roofs of these 70 apartment blocks have to be redone again. One billion is needed to restore everything ... And the government cannot allot this money ... And who knows how much this restoration works cost... works were never checked by anybody... and they are stealing at the level of Moscow" – says the concerned "mayor".
In the end Khugaev spared his "president" and put the blame for everything on Moscow. As soon as he saw the moment he blamed "tourist from Chelyabinsk" sent by Putin for everything. According to Khugaev, Kokoity many times stated that against this wishes "there is an attempt to turn South Ossetia into financial black hole". I do not know when Kokoity said such thing as he himself is not very much opposed to sink into this "black hole". On the contrary, the Club of Experts and the Georgian side in general many times stated that the occupied territories is a large financial hole for Russia and not only financial –drug and arms traffic passes there.
Khugaev neither spared "prime Minister" of Tskhinvali regime who is native of Chelyabinsk. The "mayor" of Tskhinvali named him and members of his team "tourists" sent by the Ministry of Regional Development of Russia who occupy key positions. "They all are from a small town of Ozersk of Chelyabinsk Oblast. These several tens of people - all of them are accidental people, they have never worked in government structures. None of them knows what government service is" – says Khugaev and also mentions that "proceedings are instituted with regards to tens, if not hundreds of objects that were supervised by "Ozersk government", many of those who executed those works are wanted by police although they know very well where they can be found - in their native Ozersk.
So Khugaev realized that it is impossible to continue living like this. But at the same time he knows well that if Russia does not get something out of their misfortune then it is possible that they may altogether lose their pseudo-independence. Therefore Khugaev stated that "it would be bad if someone manipulates with these data and tries to set our people against each other".
It should be noted that Ossetian families that were left homeless as a result of earthquake and Russian artillery and bombings of the Russian air force are passing night under the open sky until today. Resident of Tskhinvali Vitaly Tedeev tells that after the war Dagestanis came to him and presented themselves as representatives of one of the construction companies. They made residents to clear houses from ruins themselves and nothing was done since then. That is why Tedeev has to live in someone else's house and does not know when owners will come and when will he will be compelled to live on the street.
At that time leader of the puppet regime Eduard Kokoity makes loud statements about sending aid to population that was left homeless as a result of fires in Russia. According to the news agency RES the Kokoity government will allocate 12 million rubles from a special account to people of Nizhniy Novgorod that were devastated by fires. It is interesting cynicism towards one's own people, isn't it? As though it is the Tskhinvali regime that finances the Kremlin and not the other way around.
But everything is simpler. This is the 12 millions that Tskhinvali supposedly received and which it will supposedly give to victims of the disaster. All this is on paper. In the end Russian government will take out 12 million rubles from the sum that was supposedly allotted to Tskhinvali. This also will happen only on paper. Russians will get no aid, Kokoity will give the Kremlin its share and at the same time he will get credit for aiding devastated population and the Ministry of Regional Development will "straighten" this money and everybody will be pleased apart from those really devastated people in Russia and Tskhinvali region who for a long time to come will be made to sit under the open sky and count stars mastering a profession of astrologer.
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