Russification did not work out: how do the territories of Ukraine occupied by Russia live now?

Putin approved a law according to which Russia will officially celebrate the annexation of Ukrainian territories. The “holiday” was set for September 30th. It was on this day in 2022 that the President of the Russian Federation signed an agreement on “annexation” with the heads of pro-Russian administrations of the occupied territories, reports Meduza.

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Then the following people came to the Kremlin for the ceremony: the head of the “DPR” Denis Pushilin, the head of the “LPR” Leonid Pasechnik, the head of the occupation administration of the Kherson region Vladimir Saldo, Evgeniy Balitsky, who heads the part of the Zaporozhye region captured by the Russian army.

It was planned that the annexed territories would be united into a new federal district. According to sources, the figure of the former head of Roscosmos, radical conservative politician Dmitry Rogozin, was discussed as the plenipotentiary representative of the President of the Russian Federation in this district.

On the subject: The United States has put forward strict demands to Ukraine: without their implementation there will be no further support

However, everything did not go according to the Kremlin's plan. In the fall of 2022, Ukraine carried out a successful counter-offensive and drove Russian forces from part of its territories. Among other things, the Russian army abandoned Kherson, which was previously considered one of the main Russian “achievements” of this war.

The Federal Circuit did not appear that way. According to two sources close to the Kremlin, the Russian Presidential Administration is currently discussing the inclusion of annexed territories in the already existing Southern Federal District (which also includes Crimea, annexed in 2014). "This is reality. If last summer, until the fall, there were hopes for the expansion of new territories - the capture of Zaporozhye, access to the borders of the DPR - then now the main thing is to preserve what we have. Regions don’t deserve a separate district,” says one of Meduza’s interlocutors.

No staff, no desire

The heads of the new “Russian regions” also remained in place for now (they did not forget Dmitry Rogozin, who eventually took the surreal position of “senator from the Zaporozhye region”).

Officials who left there until the fall of 2022 mostly retain their posts. With rare exceptions - for example, Sergei Eliseev, who led the “government of the Kherson region” for several months. After the Ukrainian Armed Forces entered Kherson, he returned to his pre-war position as vice-governor of the Kaliningrad region. In addition, the “head of the DPR government” Vitaly Khotsenko moved to the position of head of the Omsk region, and the “Vice Prime Minister of the LPR” Vasily Kuznetsov moved to Chukotka.

The source spoke about his friend, who also wants to return to Russia from the occupied territories.

“Naturally, I initially wanted to help my homeland and grow in my career. Yes, there is no queue for those wishing to replace them. It’s dangerous there, there are risks - terrorist attacks, flights. He is waiting for his return, but will work,” the source explained.

Other sources confirmed that there really is no “queue of people willing” to work in the annexed territories. Especially among lower and middle level officials. Even Putin’s decree, according to which employees in the “new territories” receive double wages, does not help. “Higher salaries do not compensate for the risks,” comments a source working in the apparatus of one of the Russian regions.

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Even those who support Russia rarely agree to such government work.

“They admit that Ukraine may return, or they are afraid of becoming a target of terrorist attacks,” the sources explain.

Officials actually die regularly in these territories. For example, in September 2022, in the Kherson region, “first deputy head of government” Alexei Katerinichev was killed during shelling.

Due to the current difficult situation with personnel, the presidential administration began to hold personnel competitions in “new regions.”

They are called “Renaissance Leaders” - modeled after the “Leaders of Russia” competition, which is considered one of the main career elevators for Russian managers and which is personally supervised by Sergei Kiriyenko. Two “revival leaders” have already received the positions of “deputy ministers of the DPR.”

“Patronage”

At the same time, another initiative of the Russian authorities continues - and even expands: the so-called patronage of “new territories”. Russian regions are obliged to take on at least part of the restoration of infrastructure in captured cities and areas damaged during the war. The regions must allocate money for this from their own budgets.

In 2022, the right not to take on “patronage” was given to “depressed regions” that have difficulty finding funds even for their infrastructure (for example, Transbaikalia, Chukotka, Ivanovo region or the Jewish Autonomous Okrug). However, in 2023, the Kremlin decided to deprive these subjects of the Federation of such an opportunity, as two interlocutors in the administrations of “depressed regions” said.

At the same time, the presidential plenipotentiary representative in the Far Eastern District, Yuri Trutnev, announced that the authorities of the “poor and small” regions themselves wanted to take “patronage” over the occupied territories: “All governors expressed a categorical protest to the decision to release them from “patronage” and said that they would help.” .

A source from one such district questioned this claim.

“They don’t have enough money for themselves. We were told that too - we need to participate, Kiriyenko insists. This is his project,” he said.
Kiriyenko himself (the first deputy head of the Presidential Administration) regularly visits the annexed territories and oversees some of the Kremlin projects related to them.

“Russification in light mode”

How much “patronage” costs is not known for certain.

“A lot of resources and effort are being pumped into it to create a normal life,” said a source in the leadership of a large region of Central Russia.

According to him, local residents “receive help favorably,” but do not want to “closely contact” the Russians.

A source close to the Kremlin also noted that it is likely that a significant proportion of the population of the occupied territories retains pro-Ukrainian views.

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“Now no one knows anything completely. Everything is decided at the front. Therefore, in the occupied territories, everything is still in this regime of external control, not complete integration. It was decided to carry out Russification in light mode,” summed up one of the sources close to the AP.

“Russification in light mode” means, for example, that in schools in the annexed part of the Kherson region, students now sing the Russian anthem.

At the same time, another source close to the Kremlin has no doubt that working with the “new regions” remains an important project for Putin: “The President is confident that the lives of people there will eventually become better than under Ukraine.”

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