The eternally dead zone: why there is no life in Russian ports

Even 7 years ago, the famous publicist Arkady Babchenko published extremely interesting observations of one of the wild Russian paradoxes - the life of the country's port cities. Among other things, Babchenko wrote:

“Every time I visit a Russian port city, I am amazed at the same circumstance. Namely, a fishing port. It would seem that the sea, a port city, ships, fishing, longliners, a trawl pulling a winch, men smoked by salty winds ... In any case, any port city abroad looks exactly like that. At four in the morning, half of the male population of coastal cities gets on their boats, goes out to sea, throws up their nets and at seven already sells their catch at the fish market.

Seaside towns live by the sea. Tourism, fishing, fleet, tankers, bulk carriers, container ships, liners, cruisers, ferries, yachts, yachts, boats, small boats, barges, karbas, boats, walking aquariums, parking lots, piers, piers, crabs, mackerel and cod. On the English Channel, traffic is like on Tverskaya at rush hour. It`s natural. And the busiest places in the port city are the fish market and the port..."

And what about us? - asked Babchenko. Our picture is diametrically opposite, a port in Russia is always an empty, dead place, where nothing enters, where nothing stands in the roadstead and no one rents a parking lot:

“There is no music playing here on cruise ships. The pier does not have a single private yacht going from Bermuda to Kamchatka. The unloading of the morning catch is not in full swing here. Passengers are not being loaded onto pleasure boats..."

There is nothing in Russian ports except customs and FSB officers, Babchenko notes with sadness, and adds:

“You won't be able to get to the port. This is a forbidden territory. A terrible military secret..."

The publicist described his impressions of the port in Murmansk, however, everywhere in Russia the picture is the same, from Kaliningrad to Vladivostok. In our port cities, ports do not seem to exist. And in what is called this word, there is no business or even fishing. Unlike any other country in the world, it is impossible even to buy fresh fish in Russian ports...

7 years have passed since that publication, and nothing has changed for the peers, but most likely it has become even worse, even more secret.

Quite recently, Novye Izvestia reported that at the western gates of Russia, in the seaport of Vyborg, the passage of small vessels is prohibited. Thus, the maritime communication of Russia with the EU countries for individuals was virtually terminated. And this situation is ubiquitous!

Here is what the publicist Alena Leiko writes about this, adding other details from the seaside life of Russia. After all, it is no secret that under the pretext of "state security" the authorities of the territories along the coast of the seas washing our country are in direct violation of the law. They not only restrict, but prohibit free access to the coast of the country's citizens. Moreover, often, behind the barbed wire, it is not the border military facilities that are hiding, but the villas of the oligarchs...

“I wrote many times about exactly the same impressions, traveling around the world and in Russia. It's a shame, anger takes - why ?! Why is the port in Novorossiysk, a few kilometers of thorns over a three-meter fence, where the mouse will not slip? Why not go by sea in half an hour through the Tsimesskaya Bay, but you have to cut, winding along a crumbling serpentine, for several hours on the way to Gelendzhik and beyond?"

Why is the newly built port of Sochi a place from which only one (!) (To Sochi!) sailing "liner" of a thick rusty color departs regularly, the same one that went to Gagra back in the USSR? On which in an hour the way will be stripped from each of at least a thousand. Multiplying by the number of those who wish (it is impossible, having been by the sea, to do without a single boat trip!) We get a rather big amount. But the money will obviously not go to paint the ship. Why? Probably, the big kickbacks are taken by the port holders.

By the way, in the years of perestroika, there were plenty of boats and boats here, any walks at will. But this is a mess, so everyone will start earning their own pocket - as you keep track! So they don't earn.

Everyone also understands everything about "eating fresh fish". In a sea restaurant on the embankment of Gelendzhik, Kabardinka, Tuapse, the shrimp will be frozen, don't go to the grandma..."

Comparing the life of two neighboring coastal cities located on opposite sides of the Russian-Norwegian border - Murmansk and Kirkenes, Babchenko writes:

“Here is the middle of the industrial period, there is the information society. Here is enslavement, there is freedom. Here is poverty, there is well-being. Here it is dark, there it is light. Literally. On the Russian side, there are only lanterns near the outpost. Here - empty roads, there - traffic. There is not a single house and scorched earth in the border strip, there - the very first house met right away, a hundred (!!!) meters after the checkpoint! And then the houses did not stop. The level of ownership of the territory is simply amazing.

All this is sad, very..."