Last week, media in the occupied Donbas explained how to carve up property stolen from Ukrainians and kept assuring locals that, once the choicest assets are turned into “federal” property, life will finally get better… It suddenly turned out that the non‑government‑controlled parts of the Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts contain huge amounts of “ownerless” real estate: industrial plants, farmland, shopping malls…
Take everything and divide it up
The loudest expropriator in the information space was Aleksei Beletskiy, who calls himself “chairman of the LNR People’s Council committee on budget, taxes and property”. The collaborator told about how fast the “republic” will develop once this “ownerless” property is handed to new masters: the kremlin, the “LNR” occupation administration, and the so‑called “municipalities”. He said the process is dubbed “comprehensive property delineation”.
“Comprehensive delineation of property will be finished in the region by 1 July 2025. Afterwards it may be applied case‑by‑case whenever assets are declared ownerless”, - he announced. Beletskiy promised that “every sphere of activity will get a new boost” once the carve‑up is complete. First in line, he said, are industrial sites abandoned by citizens who left for “unfriendly” countries. If an owner fails to “declare” himself, the plant will be deemed ownerless and transferred to federal, regional or municipal ownership—plainly, the benefit of stealing other people’s property. The perks for the occupation authorities don’t stop there: the stolen assets can also be resold. “After delineation, industrial enterprises can be put up for auction so businesses, investors who ‘come to us’, can lease them and develop production” - he promised. What stands out in this statement by the Luhansk turncoat is the certainty that it will be outsiders (“those who come to us”) who are expected to lift his supposedly native land from the ruins.
Another juicy prize for anyone eager to cash in on “ownerless” property, as the occupation authorities call it, is land. “Land that has been ‘delineated’ will pass into one form of ownership or another and can be handed over for construction of single‑family and multi‑storey housing, plus shopping centres, new stores, retail‑and‑leisure complexes, and so on”, - the “deputy” enthuses, anticipating an even greater influx of outside “benefactors”.
“The investor demand for plots in the LNR is colossal. Of course most of them aim to build in Luhansk. The city’s development plan is truly vast. But the sites the LNR can offer simply aren’t enough for all investors”, - he says.
The “liberators” have not shied away from seizing and “delineating” commercial property wrecked in the fighting either: that, too, will be auctioned off. “All facilities that were destroyed and have no owners also go through the ownerless procedure, are transferred into one ownership or another, and are put up for sale”, - Beletskiy leaves no doubt about the expropriators’ intent.
He finishes his interview by answering the age‑old russian question: “And who are the judges?”—who will oversee the carve‑up, decide which slice of someone else’s pie goes to moscow, which to the “republican” authorities, and what crumbs remain locally. “Once the assets are allotted, they must be secured behind one ministry, agency or state unitary enterprise or another. This matter is under the supervision of Deputy Prime Minister of the Russian Federation Marat Khusnullin”, - the “deputy” explains to “LNR” residents, making it crystal‑clear who’s really in charge…
By Yurii Bovkh, OstroV