Letter from Crimea: Kim Sengupta

Speaking fluent English with an American accent, Mikhail Massin, would have been much more of a natural fit with the pro-Western bloc in Kiev. But here he was, a man with seeming authority, surrounded by a phalanx of Cossack former soldiers, guarding the Crimean parliament which had voted the state into Russian control.

“Why waste a good crisis?” he asked cheerfully. “There are tremendous opportunities here, this place could do fantastically well with tourism. All we get now are people from Kiev going to places like Sevastopol, spending next to nothing, leaving their trash behind on our beautiful beaches. Wait till we start getting the rich Russians start coming here, the Arabs, the Chinese.

“We can be a very wealthy state: the Russians for example pay a fortune for their Navy base, it all goes straight to Kiev and the pockets of their kleprocrats while we can’t even maintain our roads here, so there will be development followed by investment.”

Mr Massin had lived in America for 20 years and is an US citizen, now he cannot wait to get a Russian passport as well. “The Ukrainians didn’t allow dual nationality, that is no longer a problem. I am not worried about this turning into another Cold War, these sanctions Obama is talking about will not hurt the Russians that much. Anyway, the Europeans won’t go with them; they don’t want to shiver in the cold when Russia turns off the gas tap.”

What about the Crimeans who do not want secession, such as the virulently anti-Russian Tatars? “They will be fine. They are great entrepreneurs, look at them in the bazaars and shops, they will really start flying once the Russian money starts coming in. Also, there are dozens of nationalities in the Russian Federation, the Tatars will be one of them; the Russians will look after them.”

The way he dressed, spoke and acted could have led to accusations that Mr Massin was in the pay of an agency of the US administration if he had been spouting the message of the Kiev government, I pointed out. “I better not go there then” he replied. “Anyway, if you feel better with a more stereotypical Russian, speak to one of our Cossack friends here.”

The Cossacks and Tatars, fighting people both, have had a tempestuous relationship of bitter strife among themselves as well forming alliances against common enemy in the past. What did the future hold? I asked Viktor Kompanichenko, with three rows of medals on his chest. “Maybe we will win another famous war! No, no, only joking, it will be alright. Anyway, this one is too young to have a fight with”, he tapped my translator on the shoulder with a big laugh.

The translator, who had thought he was not discernibly Tatar, forced a laugh back. As we walked off he said: “I wonder if he will be saying that when things start to get really rough here, and they will.”