There were people in Crimea who were claiming for their freedom, and were neither the Russians nor the Tatars. The Republic of Kazantip existed long before the referendum, before the annexation. Ephemeral and surreal as its inhabitants, it materialized every year in these days of August on the shores of the Black Sea. But not this year.
The festival of Kazantip was not only the largest and overwhelming rave of Europe (and maybe of the world). It was something more. Every year, in the first two weeks of August on the coast of Crimea, the dream of the people of the party around the world materialized. The Republic of Kazantip, as it was called, was an ephemeral land whose anthem pumped the bass of trance and whose inhabitants were dancing between smoke and lasers, 24 hours a day. The Republic of Kazantip this year is gone, and nobody knows if it will ever return to the Crimea.
“The bombs are for peace like the rain for the love,” the founders of the festival wrote on the official website, referring to the war in the east of Ukraine. Nevertheless, it is possible that the decision to skip at least this year – taken before the situation in the Donbass become the conflict we are seeing in these weeks – has depended on other reasons, related to the annexation of Crimea by Russia.
A visa for Kazantip
Visitors to Kazantip needed a “Viza”. Obviously, it was a ticket that anybody could buy, but this year to get in Crimea all foreign nationals really need a visa, the Russian one. It is not just a bureaucratic complication, and among the causes of the fall of tourists on the beaches of the peninsula. Even the expected wave of Russian tourists didn’t come, at least not in the size told by Moscow. In the transition from gryvnia to the ruble – and with the greatest difficulty now for goods to arrive from Russia through the Strait of Kerch – prices of many goods have doubled or even tripled. From bread to medicines.
Beyond economic considerations, the political situation in the region must have also affected the decision. A chauvinist rhetoric openly referring to Soviet glories is submerging the Crimea. To the glorious city of Sevastopol – must have thought the local authorities – patriotic commemorations are better suited than rave party praising for joy and love. Things for sissies.
The wolves of the night
So, better a demonstration of muscles. A few days ago, an official bike show, actually a tedious staging, was held in Sevastopol to celebrate the “liberation” of the Crimea by the “Nazis of Kiev”. The group of bikers “Wolves of the Night”, rided their bikes while Russian soldiers destroyed a swastika made up of men dressed in black (allegorical reference to the Ukrainians). The recorded voice Obama mingled with that of Hitler and a map of Ukraine started drip blood. When the fireworks lit up the night of Sevastopol Aleksandr Zaldostanov, leader of the Wolves and a close friend of Putin, live on TV, called the Russians the new war against fascism.
According to the founders of Kazantip, the republic takes a year off – the first time in 22 years – but if the Crimea will continue to be heralded by Moscow as the banner of anti-Western nationalism, it is unlikely that people of Kazantip will ever dance on its beaches like before.
There were people in Crimea who were claiming for their freedom, and were neither the Russians nor the Tatars. The Republic of Kazantip existed long before the referendum, before the annexation. Ephemeral and surreal as its inhabitants, it materialized every year in these days of August on the shores of the Black Sea. But not this year.
