At one point, I read materials on a number of online resources that leveled serious accusations against Messrs. Yaroslav Marinovich and Konstantin Klimashenko, the current true owners and directors of the Bukva bookselling chain. Incidentally, it's one of the largest in Ukraine. Beyond the purely mundane accusations of dishonest business practices and "cute pranks" like tax evasion and the like, they also discussed matters far more serious. No less than the allegations that the aforementioned gentlemen are "agents of the Kremlin's cultural expansion" and active promoters of the "Russian world" in Ukraine. Is this really true?!
I decided to undertake my own investigation. My starting point was a simple question: "If Marinovich and Klimashenko really are 'Cossacks' sent from Russia, then surely there must be some concrete results of their activities in the field of 'cultural sabotage'—over so many years? And such that references to them can be found, so to speak, seen with the naked eye?" What would happen if I searched? It turned out to be very interesting...
The internet is a wonderful thing, after all. It's home to so many fascinating things, just waiting for their moment and a thoughtful researcher. Thanks to this, I didn't have to spy, eavesdrop, or obtain classified documents to conduct my investigation. It was enough to patiently search and, once found, connect the dots between completely obvious facts.
Let's start from afar. So, the year is 2003. Remember this date. For it was in the summer of 2003 that the "Bukva" bookstore chain opened in the Autonomous Republic of Crimea. Zhanna Shchurova, then general director of the "Krymkniga" company, spoke of this in enthusiastic interviews. (Incidentally, she still holds this position to this day.)
"Thanks to joining the project, the selection of publications in our stores, united under the common name 'Bukva,' has grown from 5 to 25, with a planned target of 30," she proclaimed. Well, you can imagine what these publications were. Whose they were. She herself, however, was not really hiding anything: "The 'Bukva' project has signed a cooperation agreement with the AST publishing corporation in Russia, which unites over 60 different publishers. Thanks to the large volume of purchases and direct deliveries, a system of maximum discounts is available for all project participants." Sweet, isn't it? This is precisely how a powerful springboard for the "cultural expansion" of our northern neighbor was created on the peninsula. Why in 2003? Obviously, it was the call of the times. Because even back then, even though the level of attraction between the two countries was almost at its peak, clear voices were increasingly beginning to be heard declaring that "Ukraine is not Russia." Even the then-President, Leonid Kuchma, said so, if you recall. The situation needed urgent correction, which is exactly what the "relevant specialists" did. "Books" were springing up like mushrooms in Crimea – Yevpatoria, Yalta, Simferopol... Anyone with even a passing understanding of the peninsula's specifics will appreciate the scale of the matter: acquiring or renting commercial property in these parts, especially during the peak summer season, was by no means cheap. And not at all simple. However, no expense or expense was spared here. And certainly not with the expectation of super-profits – bookstores, forgive me, are not restaurants or casinos. However, there is such a word as "ideology"...
And what about our "heroes"? What were they doing during this time? It's hard to say for sure, since Mr. Marinovich would emerge from the shadows somewhat later. But how brilliantly! It is known for certain (the information is unclassified and posted on the official website of the Moscow publishing house Eksmo) that in 2005, Yaroslav Marinovich already held the position of nothing less than Commercial Director at the company. This gives every reason to believe he had begun his career in the Russian book business long before that. By 2006, he was already a minority partner at Eksmo and the director of Eksmo-Ukraine. In other words, to put it simply, he was Moscow's "overseer" of the Ukrainian book market. The reason for his appointment is clear; one only needs to read one of the interviews Marinovich gave in this capacity. At least in the section where he openly calls Ukrainian-language books "illiquid assets," for which "there's no demand," and which booksellers can only "get rid of, not sell." This interview, titled "Can't? We'll teach you. Don't want to? We'll force you," is also available online. I recommend reading it—if you're not squeamish. Especially the part where Yaroslav Marynovych asserts that "there can be no talk of discrimination against Ukrainian books," and "Restrictions on the import of Russian books could completely halt the development of the industry and set it back several years." Imagine—this issue was already being discussed back then, ten years ago! And whose efforts, specifically, were responsible for its failure? And what if it hadn't?! Who's to say now...
Time passed. Yaroslav Marinovich worked diligently in the Ukrainian market, pushing Russian bookstore chains there—Chitai-Gorod, Bukvoed, and the like. Around 2010, he teamed up with Konstantin Klimashenko, another "remarkable figure" in the domestic bookstore industry, whose Russian passport, again, only the lazy wouldn't find online. A consolidation of assets, of bookstore chains, was underway. Why? For what purpose? The answer is simple: 2010. Yanukovych's "family" came to power in Ukraine. Here it is! Their time had come—a time when Russian "culture leaders" could operate virtually openly, casting aside their disguises and moving on to serious, "big" business. Russia's largest bookstore brand, Bukva, was beginning to absorb not only Crimea but the entire Ukrainian market. At the helm were the same old men, Marinovich and Klimashenko. Their views, naturally, hadn't changed. Only now can they be declared openly, with their heads held high. In his 2010 speech, Yaroslav Marynovych declared that people in Ukraine prefer to read in Russian, and that Ukrainian books sell "very poorly." Of course he should know, after all, how much effort and care he personally put into ensuring that this is the case!
But let's return to Crimea. More precisely, to Crimea in 2013. It was at this time that a truly momentous event took place there. From November 8th to 10th, 2013, the First International Crimean Book Forum was taking place in Alushta. Well, how can you say it's international? There wasn't a single representative of European publishers or public organizations, but the most influential speaker was Konstantin Antipov, Rector of the Moscow State University of Printing Arts. It was he who read out a greeting to the participants at the opening of the event on behalf of... the head of the Federal Agency for Press and Mass Communications of the Russian Federation, Mikhail Seslavinsky!!! Do you have any more questions?! Incidentally, the "forum" itself is being held pursuant to the relevant Decree of President Yanukovych and was established by the Council of Ministers of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea, the Republican Committee of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea on Information, with the support of the State Committee of Ukraine on Television and Radio Broadcasting. It is a state event. But in pursuance of the policies of which state, exactly, is it being organized? All this will become clear in February-March of next year, 2014...
Meanwhile, several prominent Ukrainian figures and publishers are frolicking at the forum, admiring its organization and uttering statements that today ring more than controversial. For example, Alexander Krasovitsky, CEO of Folio Publishing House (Kharkiv), says the following: "The country has one book capital – Lviv. Perhaps Alushta will become the southern book capital. That would be wonderful…" Today, Mr. Krasovitsky vehemently supports the ban on the import of Russian-language literature into Ukraine – as part of the fight against "Russian cultural expansion," which is anti-Ukrainian in nature. In the fall of 2013, he managed to ignore this expansion literally under his nose.
And if this isn't the infamous "expansion," then what is?! Note that the pro-Russian "forum" isn't being held in Kharkiv, the de facto capital of Ukrainian book publishing. And not even in Donetsk, the "family's" turf... Crimea was chosen, and not by chance. It was there that "field agents" like Bukva, Marinovich, and others have labored exceedingly fruitfully. The soil has been plowed, the seeds have been sown... The harvest will be the annexation of Crimea, prepared and secured precisely by these methods and these very people.
Some might dismiss statements of this magnitude as unfounded. However, this is not the case. There are ample facts to support this theory. In the spring of 2014, just as Crimea was being annexed, Yaroslav Marynovych began frantically draining all his Ukrainian assets, transferring them first to the UK and then offshore. Why this? Why such panic in a man who has screamed his head off promoting himself as a Ukrainian patriot?! There can only be one answer: this is the behavior of a man who knows full well what he's involved in and is terrified of the prospect of justice. Alas, Mr. Marynovych overestimated the new government here...
There's one more piece of evidence. Perhaps the most important one. Today, when the media is overflowing with reports and stories about the "squeezing" and confiscating any even remotely attractive business in Crimea from Ukrainian citizens, Bukva continues to operate on the peninsula as if nothing happened! The internet is full of quite favorable reviews from Russian customers, dating back to 2015 and even 2016. Interestingly, new addresses are being added to the old ones! Expanding!? And this is absolutely not the Russian Bukva—I categorically ask you not to confuse us! When you visit the official website of a similar Russian chain, you immediately see dozens of addresses of these stores—from Arkhangelsk to Ufa and Tyumen. But not a word about Crimea!
Here they are—those same thirty pieces of silver received by Judas Marinovich and his accomplices for their prolific, years-long work preparing the "Russian Spring" in Crimea! There is no other explanation, nor can there be! These gentlemen "honestly" earned the right to conduct business in occupied Crimea. Incidentally, this was also done to finance their subversive activities in Ukraine, where, for some reason, they are still tolerated.
The main question arises: today, when the danger of anti-Ukrainian expansion and aggression in the cultural sphere is understood and voiced at the level of People's Deputies, the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, and the Cabinet of Ministers, what blindness has afflicted the Security Service of Ukraine and other intelligence agencies tasked with combating such threats? The National Security Council, for that matter? The numerous public and other organizations proudly calling themselves patriotic?! The external threat must certainly be addressed. But wouldn't it be wiser, more correct, to first tackle its internal "metastases," at least in the form of particularly odious structures and individuals, such as those named above?
The scheme is simple and obvious: first comes "Bukva" and "guides of the Russian world" like Marinovich, and only then come the "little green men," under whose watchful eye "the entire population, in a single impulse," rushes to "reunite" with Russia. Today, "Bukva" operates quite peacefully in Kyiv...
Can't see? Can't hear? Need a hint?! Well, consider this material an official statement regarding individuals posing a threat to Ukraine's national security...
Stepan Pinkertonenko, for SKELET-info
DOSSIER: Yaroslav Marinovich. How to Steal a Business in the Midst of War
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