WEBVTT - Kaliningrad’s Decapitated Entrepreneur 0:00:02.520 --> 0:00:06.520 Media. Something strange is going on. Another member of the 0:00:06.600 --> 0:00:08.119 Russian elite has been found dead. 0:00:08.880 --> 0:00:11.200 Reports suggests that he fell out of a window, poisoned 0:00:11.240 --> 0:00:12.639 with mushrooms. 0:00:12.240 --> 0:00:16.639 Died of heart failure, died of carbonnoxide poisoning. How comes 0:00:16.680 --> 0:00:17.080 they are they? 0:00:18.120 --> 0:00:22.959 Dozens of Russian oligachs, politically motivated millionaires have died in 0:00:23.000 --> 0:00:28.080 the space for three years, most of them in suspicious circumstances. 0:00:28.400 --> 0:00:30.240 Many have hidden links to the Kremlin. 0:00:31.520 --> 0:00:36.600 This is sad Oligach Season two, an ongoing investigation into 0:00:36.640 --> 0:00:42.000 these recently dead Russian power brokers. Sad Oligach is created 0:00:42.040 --> 0:00:46.600 by me Jake Hanrahan and my Ukrainian colleague Sergey Slipchenkov. 0:00:47.600 --> 0:00:50.640 This is a H eleven studio and Coolso Media production. 0:00:56.080 --> 0:01:05.480 September eighth, twenty twenty five. A bridge in Kaliningrad. The 0:01:05.560 --> 0:01:11.600 Kaliningrad region is an unusual place. It's Russian territory, but 0:01:11.680 --> 0:01:16.720 it's completely encircled by European countries. It's like an island, 0:01:17.000 --> 0:01:20.720 only instead of being surrounded by water, it's surrounded by 0:01:20.840 --> 0:01:26.640 Poland and Lithuania, countries that both have serious hostilities with 0:01:26.840 --> 0:01:34.920 Russia NATO countries. This six thousand square mile exclave is 0:01:35.040 --> 0:01:40.440 over four hundred miles from the Russian border. Still, Kaliningrad 0:01:40.520 --> 0:01:46.440 answers directly to the Kremlin. It's Russia, just not mainland Russia. 0:01:47.400 --> 0:01:52.600 It's been like this for a while. Originally, though Kaliningrad 0:01:52.760 --> 0:01:56.680 was part of the Kingdom of Prussia, thought of proto 0:01:57.000 --> 0:02:01.600 Germany that began in the seventeen hundreds. Back then it 0:02:01.680 --> 0:02:06.800 was called Koenigsburg. Was eventually seized in nineteen forty five 0:02:06.880 --> 0:02:09.799 by the Soviet Union at the end of World War Two. 0:02:10.680 --> 0:02:13.359 The Communists kicked most of the Germans out and gave 0:02:13.400 --> 0:02:17.320 the region the new name Kaliningrad. The namesake is a 0:02:17.360 --> 0:02:20.359 nod to the Soviet politician Mikhail Kalinin. 0:02:20.480 --> 0:02:23.200 Kalinin, who rose from peasant by to be President of 0:02:23.200 --> 0:02:24.160 the Supreme Council. 0:02:24.280 --> 0:02:28.680 When the USSA collapsed in nineteen ninety one, Kaliningrad became 0:02:28.760 --> 0:02:33.120 part of the new Russia. It's remained that way ever since. 0:02:34.560 --> 0:02:39.240 Of course, a strategically important area for the Kremlin, a 0:02:39.320 --> 0:02:52.320 highly militarized fly in Europe's ointment. It's here in Kaliningrad's 0:02:52.360 --> 0:02:56.280 Gurievsky area, where a body of forty three year old 0:02:56.520 --> 0:03:03.120 entrepreneur Alexi. Sinitsin is laid out under a bridge. His 0:03:03.240 --> 0:03:06.400 limbs are stiff, is positioned on the bank of a 0:03:06.440 --> 0:03:12.520 small river. He's dead, very dead. His body is missing 0:03:12.800 --> 0:03:14.440 one vital component. 0:03:15.440 --> 0:03:20.240 It's head. Snitsin has been decapitated. 0:03:22.560 --> 0:03:25.800 The nailed up spine sticks out from a gaping wound 0:03:25.800 --> 0:03:30.160 at the neck. Strangely, the head is not near the body, 0:03:30.960 --> 0:03:35.640 it's some distance away. Next to this gruesome scene is 0:03:35.680 --> 0:03:41.360 a carefully coiled towing cable high strength nylon rope made 0:03:41.440 --> 0:03:48.280 for pulling vehicles. Polisa called after this nightmare is discovered 0:03:48.320 --> 0:03:54.440 by passers by crops arrive not the scene, and then 0:03:54.480 --> 0:03:55.160 their rapport. 0:03:55.720 --> 0:03:56.400 They write that. 0:03:56.400 --> 0:04:01.920 Its quote could be a suicide. How Sennitskin managed to 0:04:02.000 --> 0:04:06.640 cut off his own head, I don't know. The toe 0:04:06.720 --> 0:04:10.720 rope is thick, woven, dull. It's not like a piano 0:04:10.920 --> 0:04:16.000 or razor wire, which in theory, could maybe decapitator man 0:04:16.279 --> 0:04:19.040 if he used it as a noose. But then how 0:04:19.040 --> 0:04:21.960 would the body end up on the riverbank with its 0:04:22.000 --> 0:04:27.080 head in another location? It could be a suicide, but 0:04:27.200 --> 0:04:32.200 that is very unlikely, it seems. The police are also 0:04:32.520 --> 0:04:37.640 not so sure. They open a criminal investigation into the case, 0:04:38.360 --> 0:04:55.440 mostly citing the tow cable suspicious evidence. Such a grizzly 0:04:55.560 --> 0:05:00.479 scene creates a lot of questions. First and foremost for us, 0:05:01.040 --> 0:05:05.560 who the hell was Sinnitsin? A death as brutal as 0:05:05.600 --> 0:05:09.920 this does not happen on a whim. We've been working 0:05:09.960 --> 0:05:14.320 on this case tirelessly, and the simple answer is so 0:05:14.440 --> 0:05:19.160 Knitsin is a bit of a ghost. Very little information 0:05:19.480 --> 0:05:23.640 is out there about him, no real social media presence, 0:05:24.120 --> 0:05:27.640 no record of his childhood, no real effort made to 0:05:27.720 --> 0:05:31.480 follow up on the report of his death. Even by 0:05:31.480 --> 0:05:36.880 the standards of the Kremlins Russia, it's very unusual. I 0:05:36.960 --> 0:05:40.400 reached out to people associated with him and I got nothing. 0:05:40.800 --> 0:05:44.600 Every single time brick Wall, You'd think someone would at 0:05:44.720 --> 0:05:47.559 least want to make sure the correct impression was given 0:05:47.920 --> 0:05:52.400 about this man after he was left headless under a bridge. 0:05:52.560 --> 0:05:57.440 This is not a normal death. Researcher Victi Mihiel, who's 0:05:57.560 --> 0:06:01.360 working on this with us, managed to dig out some information, 0:06:01.960 --> 0:06:04.480 but honestly, there is not a lot out there. 0:06:05.040 --> 0:06:07.640 We have no clue and no information about this guy. 0:06:07.880 --> 0:06:10.160 If you look him up, you cannot find any information 0:06:10.279 --> 0:06:14.520 other than his birthplace and some very vague stuff such 0:06:14.560 --> 0:06:20.200 as that he appeared in Russia two times on records, 0:06:20.520 --> 0:06:24.200 once when he was born in Vorkuta in nineteen eighty two, 0:06:24.240 --> 0:06:27.039 if I'm not mistaken, and the second one when he 0:06:27.440 --> 0:06:32.560 self proclaimed as an entrepreneur in twenty fourteen in Saint Petersburg. Well, 0:06:32.960 --> 0:06:35.760 there is a bit of a distance between Saint Petersburg 0:06:35.880 --> 0:06:40.080 and Kaliningrad, right in twenty sixteen he moved randomly in 0:06:40.120 --> 0:06:44.760 Kaliniingrad twenty eighteen started to work for this K potash company, 0:06:44.839 --> 0:06:47.920 and in twenty twenty two, just four years later, somehow 0:06:48.160 --> 0:06:50.520 he became the general director the company. 0:06:50.640 --> 0:06:54.560 Victor mentions here K potash is something I'll get to 0:06:54.760 --> 0:06:59.320 in a bit related to soap mines and fertilizer. Keep 0:06:59.320 --> 0:07:01.039 it in the back of your mind, though, as it 0:07:01.160 --> 0:07:05.000 may hold some answers as to why Senitzin died the 0:07:05.000 --> 0:07:05.760 way he did. 0:07:06.400 --> 0:07:10.000 There is no information about his studies, parents, whatever, what 0:07:10.160 --> 0:07:14.600 makes him eligible to work as a director. When you 0:07:14.640 --> 0:07:18.880 need studies, when you need a diploma in economics, you 0:07:18.920 --> 0:07:22.400 need to be even an engineer. I'm saying because an engineer, 0:07:22.400 --> 0:07:25.720 because this guy was literally making projects, as in engineering 0:07:25.760 --> 0:07:30.520 projects of the minds which did these extractions and whatnot. 0:07:31.280 --> 0:07:35.040 But what I was saying, at some point in the 0:07:35.240 --> 0:07:39.680 Colini Grad collective unconsciousness, people thought, wow, I wonder if 0:07:39.720 --> 0:07:43.520 we have a director for this company, because for some 0:07:43.560 --> 0:07:47.960 reason nobody knew the director was from twenty to twenty two, 0:07:48.080 --> 0:07:50.920 twenty twenty five where this person was to beheaded. 0:07:54.280 --> 0:07:58.720 This is another interesting point Victors brought up here. Not 0:07:58.800 --> 0:08:03.560 only is Senitsan's past highly elusive, so are the records 0:08:03.600 --> 0:08:07.120 of some of the places he worked at. It says 0:08:07.120 --> 0:08:09.920 if he floated in as a specter and took with 0:08:10.080 --> 0:08:15.320 him everyone's memories as he left. Maybe it's just bad 0:08:15.520 --> 0:08:22.320 record keeping in Kaliningrad. Maybe Russia, in all of its 0:08:22.360 --> 0:08:27.440 iterations throughout history, has been a place of meticulous record keeping. 0:08:28.320 --> 0:08:32.640 They're literally known for it. From Imperial Russia and the 0:08:32.679 --> 0:08:37.520 Soviet Union to post USSR collapse and now Planet Putin, 0:08:38.080 --> 0:08:42.280 bureaucracy has always been a big part of the Russian experience. 0:08:43.600 --> 0:08:48.520 They're great record keepers, but they're also selective record keepers. 0:08:49.559 --> 0:08:53.280 When it helps state, red take and minute details are 0:08:53.360 --> 0:08:57.280 all very important, but when it doesn't help the state, 0:08:57.960 --> 0:09:03.920 everything suddenly vanish. It many such cases when the Soviet 0:09:04.040 --> 0:09:08.080 Union went belly up. For example, Russia eventually ended up 0:09:08.120 --> 0:09:14.360 restricting access to the Soviet era archives. Courts would unlawfully 0:09:14.360 --> 0:09:18.160 limit the records so researchers couldn't uncover the true horrors 0:09:18.360 --> 0:09:24.040 of the USSR. They'd reclassified documents, hide them, destroy them, 0:09:24.520 --> 0:09:28.720 or simply say they got lost along the way. Another 0:09:28.800 --> 0:09:32.880 example is the twenty sixteen drug scandal, when a state 0:09:32.960 --> 0:09:39.440 run doping program for Russian Olympic athletes was exposed. It 0:09:39.520 --> 0:09:43.440 was found that the Russian government was guaranteeing that the 0:09:43.480 --> 0:09:47.920 tests that came back positive for performance enhancing drugs were hidden. 0:09:49.040 --> 0:10:03.520 There was an institutional effort that made any incriminating documents disappear. Okay, 0:10:04.320 --> 0:10:11.680 now it's time for a quick outbreak. All right, enough 0:10:11.679 --> 0:10:21.559 of that, now back to the shore. You get my point. 0:10:22.240 --> 0:10:26.559 Records have regularly vanished into the ether in Russia when 0:10:26.600 --> 0:10:28.720 they might expose stay wrongdoing. 0:10:30.760 --> 0:10:33.400 Don't get me wrong, though, This is not just a 0:10:33.480 --> 0:10:34.600 Russian problem. 0:10:34.920 --> 0:10:39.240 It is a political problem all across the world, left 0:10:39.480 --> 0:10:45.840 right up, down center. Everybody is at it. Just take 0:10:45.880 --> 0:10:50.640 the so called Epstein files for example. The US government 0:10:50.880 --> 0:10:56.800 on all sides has or is actively hiding important evidence 0:10:57.160 --> 0:11:00.320 that exposes the involvement of the rich and power full 0:11:00.679 --> 0:11:06.600 in the world's worst known pedophile human trafficking ring. Try 0:11:06.720 --> 0:11:12.160 to get your head around that these are people who 0:11:12.200 --> 0:11:16.760 talk about the morals of their government and excoriate their foes, 0:11:17.080 --> 0:11:20.440 and yet they are knowingly taking part in an open 0:11:20.640 --> 0:11:24.880 cover up to help some of the worst people on earth. 0:11:27.160 --> 0:11:31.959 It's absolutely diabolical, It's corrupt, and sadly, I don't think 0:11:32.040 --> 0:11:33.560 it will ever change. 0:11:34.760 --> 0:11:35.200 Anyway. 0:11:35.559 --> 0:11:36.280 I digress. 0:11:47.400 --> 0:11:50.720 Still, the fact that this all takes place in Cliningrad 0:11:51.160 --> 0:11:54.239 might be why things are a little difficult to decipher. 0:11:54.720 --> 0:11:58.080 It's not exactly an area that has the spotlight. In fact, 0:11:58.160 --> 0:12:00.480 it's not a place many people in euro have been 0:12:00.520 --> 0:12:06.160 too atall. A holiday destination, is not. I actually tried 0:12:06.200 --> 0:12:11.000 to go to Kaliningrad myself in twenty seventeen. At the time, 0:12:11.200 --> 0:12:13.520 there were rumors that the state had been fortifying the 0:12:13.559 --> 0:12:17.520 borders and bringing more heavy weapons into the area. I 0:12:17.559 --> 0:12:20.160 wanted to go and see what I could verify and 0:12:20.240 --> 0:12:22.840 write a story on it. As a journalist, I had 0:12:22.880 --> 0:12:27.360 to apply for a visa. I was denied. Later I 0:12:27.520 --> 0:12:30.160 was told that the reason for this was my recent 0:12:30.240 --> 0:12:35.280 report in the so called Denetsk People's Republic or the DNR. 0:12:35.720 --> 0:12:39.160 This is one of the most contentious separatist held areas 0:12:39.200 --> 0:12:46.720 in East Ukraine. The Russian back militias controlling the area 0:12:46.920 --> 0:12:51.000 framed it as some kind of post Soviet utopia. They 0:12:51.040 --> 0:12:55.720 even brought in hardline communist extremists from across Europe to 0:12:55.840 --> 0:12:58.640 live there and help spread international propaganda. 0:12:59.160 --> 0:13:03.199 It was very weird. Now I had an inklin. 0:13:03.440 --> 0:13:07.440 It wasn't quite the war torn red paradise they made out, 0:13:07.880 --> 0:13:12.800 so I traveled over to see for myself. As soon 0:13:12.840 --> 0:13:16.000 as I arrived, I was assigned a group of minders 0:13:16.200 --> 0:13:18.480 who took me on a three day press tour of 0:13:18.600 --> 0:13:19.120 the region. 0:13:19.280 --> 0:13:21.280 We've been allowed permission here on condition. 0:13:21.120 --> 0:13:23.560 That we have a minder, so basically they take us 0:13:23.600 --> 0:13:25.280 to the people they want us to speak to. It's 0:13:25.400 --> 0:13:28.000 very controlled, but we've come here anyway because these guys 0:13:28.000 --> 0:13:32.160 no longer see themselves. I couldn't go freely myself anywhere. 0:13:33.000 --> 0:13:36.280 It was essentially a North Korea style propaganda campaign. 0:13:36.559 --> 0:13:37.400 In real time. 0:13:38.640 --> 0:13:40.360 They put on a show to make it seem as 0:13:40.400 --> 0:13:43.640 if everything was running great and that the only issue 0:13:43.679 --> 0:13:46.000 was the Ukrainians attacking them. 0:13:46.240 --> 0:13:49.280 But every staged event they took me to fell apart. 0:13:50.120 --> 0:13:52.960 Something would go wrong, and the minders would just hope 0:13:52.960 --> 0:13:54.199 that I didn't notice. 0:13:56.160 --> 0:13:56.880 Okay, can we go in. 0:13:59.160 --> 0:14:02.000 For example, when they took me to an old lady's 0:14:02.040 --> 0:14:04.800 house that had been bombed, they prompted her to tell 0:14:04.840 --> 0:14:07.920 me how much she loved the then separatist leader of 0:14:07.920 --> 0:14:13.640 the DNA, Zakachenko. Only problem was when they presented her 0:14:13.720 --> 0:14:17.200 with a newspaper with a full page image of Zakachenko. 0:14:17.720 --> 0:14:19.000 She didn't know who he was. 0:14:23.600 --> 0:14:23.760 Then. 0:14:24.560 --> 0:14:28.720 This sweet Bubushka also accidentally let on that the house 0:14:28.760 --> 0:14:32.120 they were showing us around that wasn't actually hers. She 0:14:32.240 --> 0:14:35.800 lived in a different house in the same compound. She 0:14:35.960 --> 0:14:38.880 was being used for propaganda and forced to lie for 0:14:38.920 --> 0:14:43.240 the camera. In the evenings, the one hotel I was 0:14:43.240 --> 0:14:48.360 allowed to stay at became a human trafficking hub. Big 0:14:48.440 --> 0:14:51.760 men with flattheads entered the restaurant bar area with a 0:14:51.760 --> 0:14:55.320 dozen or so young women. They would offer these women 0:14:55.400 --> 0:14:58.160 up like cattle to anyone willing to pay. 0:14:59.560 --> 0:15:01.320 Surprise, surprise, the. 0:15:01.160 --> 0:15:06.960 Local comrades had no qualms about this at all. If 0:15:07.000 --> 0:15:11.520 that wasn't bad enough, my DNR minders also faked a 0:15:11.600 --> 0:15:16.280 gun battle at a front line position whilst there They 0:15:16.360 --> 0:15:19.320 literally told me the shooting will begin soon. 0:15:19.640 --> 0:15:22.800 Movement for soldiers. 0:15:25.360 --> 0:15:29.520 And that is that incoming, And sure enough bullets flew 0:15:29.560 --> 0:15:34.040 past our heads as we ducked into a trench. I 0:15:34.120 --> 0:15:36.760 covered many wars by this point, and I knew that's 0:15:37.080 --> 0:15:40.280 just not how it works. Front Lines are, of course, 0:15:40.440 --> 0:15:46.560 by nature, very unpredictable. At this scene, the DNA commanders 0:15:46.600 --> 0:15:52.280 explained how the Ukrainians were constantly violating the ceasefire. Only 0:15:52.320 --> 0:15:55.760 the gunfire was coming from an opposite burm across the way, 0:15:56.120 --> 0:15:58.800 which I knew was the DNR position. I even checked 0:15:58.840 --> 0:16:01.200 it when I got back, angulated it on the maps, 0:16:01.360 --> 0:16:04.360 got analysts to check it out. It was DNR position. 0:16:05.080 --> 0:16:09.840 No Ukrainians there. The whole thing was staged to influence 0:16:09.880 --> 0:16:14.200 my reporting. Luckily I twigged early on, and we've been 0:16:14.240 --> 0:16:18.080 filming every fuck up on the slide. Long story short, 0:16:18.320 --> 0:16:21.600 I made a documentary showing that the DNR is an 0:16:21.640 --> 0:16:29.160 authoritarian shitthle ran by Russian commanders and local organized criminals. Now, 0:16:29.200 --> 0:16:32.920 even though Russia was then pretending they were actually nothing 0:16:32.960 --> 0:16:36.040 to do with the DNR, I was subsequently not granted 0:16:36.040 --> 0:16:40.360 permission to enter Kiliningrad or any other Russian territory at 0:16:40.360 --> 0:16:45.960 that time. All of this is relevant to understanding the 0:16:46.000 --> 0:16:50.280 psyche of the Kremlin. In practical terms, when it comes 0:16:50.280 --> 0:16:55.080 to on the ground manipulation, they have no qualms. I mean, 0:16:55.400 --> 0:16:59.120 just quickly take the DNR for example. Again, all of 0:16:59.120 --> 0:17:01.320 the leaders who run place when I was there in 0:17:01.360 --> 0:17:06.240 twenty seventeen have since died in targeted assassinations right there 0:17:06.280 --> 0:17:09.879 in the DNA. The Russians of course blame Ukraine, but 0:17:09.960 --> 0:17:13.600 trust me, there is a stack of evidence which suggests 0:17:13.640 --> 0:17:16.480 it was the Kremlin who took out their own useful 0:17:16.520 --> 0:17:18.679 idiots when they were no longer needed. 0:17:19.720 --> 0:17:21.439 So with all this in mind, I'm. 0:17:21.320 --> 0:17:24.679 Sat here thinking to myself, is it possible that this 0:17:24.760 --> 0:17:29.840 kind of behavior is also happening in Kaliningrad. Honestly I 0:17:29.880 --> 0:17:32.240 don't know, but I do want to speak to someone 0:17:32.280 --> 0:17:33.760 who's actually been there. 0:17:34.160 --> 0:17:36.040 As I said, I didn't make it there. 0:17:36.200 --> 0:17:39.400 So I reached out to journalist Sam Farley, who went 0:17:39.440 --> 0:17:45.160 to Kaliningrad in twenty eighteen. I guess, firstly, just if 0:17:45.160 --> 0:17:48.520 you can't explain why you went to Cliningrad. 0:17:48.040 --> 0:17:54.400 The World Cup that Russia held in twenty eighteen, England 0:17:54.400 --> 0:17:58.960 played there against Belgium. This is weird atmosphere that, like, 0:17:59.040 --> 0:18:00.880 the place is quite weird itself. 0:18:02.119 --> 0:18:04.359 We went drove into the. 0:18:04.400 --> 0:18:08.639 Country and drove out again from Poland, and that border 0:18:08.720 --> 0:18:11.639 took hours to get over. And I think whenever I 0:18:11.640 --> 0:18:14.560 think about it now and think how difficult it must be. Now, 0:18:15.240 --> 0:18:18.080 every place I've ever been to has like some positives. 0:18:19.560 --> 0:18:24.120 It's not the It's not the nicest place. 0:18:24.480 --> 0:18:26.399 I understand, Like people keep saying, it's this kind of 0:18:26.400 --> 0:18:29.359 brutallest place. Is it as bad as it sounds? Like 0:18:29.520 --> 0:18:31.439 gray concrete and all that. 0:18:31.400 --> 0:18:37.320 Gray concrete is just the perfect scrypted words for it. 0:18:37.440 --> 0:18:39.600 The only nice splash of color I can remember was 0:18:39.640 --> 0:18:42.359 like there there was like a McDonald's that was really 0:18:42.440 --> 0:18:44.919 lit up well, and it's just red and yellow, and like, 0:18:45.040 --> 0:18:48.639 genuinely that's the only color in the whole place, Like 0:18:48.680 --> 0:18:54.720 it's it's incredibly depressing. It almost felt the other kind 0:18:54.720 --> 0:18:57.480 of moment I kind of remember really well in terms 0:18:57.520 --> 0:19:00.439 of colors. We were staying at the top of a 0:19:00.960 --> 0:19:04.320 sort of tower block and at the bottom was a 0:19:04.680 --> 0:19:08.119 shisha bar and kind of walking back to the place, 0:19:08.400 --> 0:19:10.200 walking to and from the place every day. 0:19:11.560 --> 0:19:14.520 The place was gray. It was the weather wasn't particularly 0:19:14.520 --> 0:19:15.600 good either, which didn't help. 0:19:15.680 --> 0:19:18.320 The sky was gray, the buildings are gray, and there 0:19:18.400 --> 0:19:20.560 was just this sort of like luminous green kind of 0:19:20.680 --> 0:19:24.879 light emanating from the shisha bar, and that's all you 0:19:25.000 --> 0:19:27.359 really saw was was lights from shop fronts. 0:19:28.800 --> 0:19:32.480 It's very depressing, and it's not in a. 0:19:33.920 --> 0:19:37.800 It's not kind of Russian or Soviet in like a 0:19:37.880 --> 0:19:41.280 kind of fun interesting way like Transnistria. 0:19:41.640 --> 0:19:42.760 It's so weird but. 0:19:42.840 --> 0:19:48.240 Really fun kind of kitchen like it's that's really interesting place. 0:19:48.240 --> 0:19:50.280 Whereas this just felt depressing. 0:19:52.800 --> 0:20:00.840 Okay, now it's time for a quick outbreak, all right. 0:20:00.960 --> 0:20:03.600 Not for that, now back to the short. 0:20:06.520 --> 0:20:10.919 It felt like every bad part of Russia combined, and 0:20:10.960 --> 0:20:15.199 it lacked the vibrancy of any of the other Russian 0:20:15.240 --> 0:20:18.920 cities I've visited at that tournament or I've been too 0:20:19.760 --> 0:20:22.240 for that, and. 0:20:21.600 --> 0:20:28.879 Even the people just they just well kind of very. 0:20:29.400 --> 0:20:34.400 Wire not particularly friendly, like keeping themselves themselves. 0:20:35.280 --> 0:20:37.520 Did you feel at all that there was this kind 0:20:37.560 --> 0:20:40.080 of Russian military presence? 0:20:40.680 --> 0:20:42.800 To be honest, I didn't feel that on the street 0:20:42.920 --> 0:20:48.040 at all. Anytime I would say I did think like shit, 0:20:48.119 --> 0:20:49.639 this is this is a bit unusually. It's kind of 0:20:49.680 --> 0:20:53.520 when we did go through that border. Crossing it was 0:20:54.440 --> 0:20:59.800 stacked with soldiers and all sorts of sort of military 0:21:00.240 --> 0:21:02.359 now or security or whatever, and I did kind of 0:21:02.400 --> 0:21:06.240 think this is obviously. I know they had invaded playing 0:21:06.320 --> 0:21:07.600 like four years prior to that. 0:21:08.160 --> 0:21:11.399 He didn't feel like Europe was on like a war 0:21:11.480 --> 0:21:15.119 setting at that point. Going through that border, I was 0:21:15.880 --> 0:21:17.399 genuinely quite surprised. 0:21:18.320 --> 0:21:20.159 Every other kind of route I'd gone into Russia, I'd 0:21:20.200 --> 0:21:22.280 done it through air and then it just felt like 0:21:22.840 --> 0:21:25.679 every every airport was the same as any other airport 0:21:25.680 --> 0:21:30.000 in the world. Yeah, crossing did feel very, very kind 0:21:30.000 --> 0:21:33.479 of defined, and a lot are if I'm honest. 0:21:36.720 --> 0:21:39.720 So that's the backdrop for where this horrific death took place, 0:21:40.800 --> 0:21:46.960 decapitated amongst the concrete and brutalism. Before his untimely death, 0:21:47.320 --> 0:21:52.520 Alexi Sanitsin was the CEO of k Potash, the company 0:21:52.640 --> 0:21:56.199 that dealt with different types of natural minerals in the region. 0:21:56.720 --> 0:22:00.440 It's a bit confusing what Sannitzin was in charge of where, 0:22:00.880 --> 0:22:04.440 so let's speak to surgery to clarify. He's most definitely 0:22:04.600 --> 0:22:08.280 smart than I am. One thing that is confusing me, right, 0:22:08.400 --> 0:22:13.000 So some media, and this is both Russian media or 0:22:13.040 --> 0:22:16.800 at least like Russian focused. One says that he was 0:22:16.840 --> 0:22:21.439 the CEO of a salt mine, and another says he 0:22:21.720 --> 0:22:25.680 was the CEO of a fertilizer company. Have you worked 0:22:25.720 --> 0:22:28.480 out what's what there is that like the same company 0:22:28.520 --> 0:22:30.679 with different parts and people are getting the wrong end 0:22:30.680 --> 0:22:32.120 of the stick. I can't work it out. 0:22:32.359 --> 0:22:34.720 It's like a company and then has a subsidiary. From 0:22:34.720 --> 0:22:36.920 my understanding, he's kind of in charge of both, and 0:22:37.080 --> 0:22:40.600 the both things are kind of true because so potash 0:22:40.800 --> 0:22:44.360 is what he's like the project that's supposed to mine potash, 0:22:44.400 --> 0:22:47.760 which is essentially salt. I mean it's more complex than that, 0:22:47.800 --> 0:22:51.360 but basically just minerals on the ground and they're used 0:22:51.359 --> 0:22:55.360 for fertilizer. So essentially potash is extremely vital to agriculture. 0:22:55.480 --> 0:22:56.920 Back in I think it was twenty twenty three to 0:22:57.000 --> 0:22:59.560 twenty four, the war in Ukraine kind of affected a 0:22:59.560 --> 0:23:03.000 lot of export of potash and attackted a lot of countries. 0:23:03.080 --> 0:23:05.760 I believe it was in Africa and some other southern countries. 0:23:06.000 --> 0:23:09.640 They were near like famine just because they couldn't get 0:23:09.720 --> 0:23:11.840 this fertilizer and the basically messed up all the crop. 0:23:12.040 --> 0:23:13.920 So it's a big deal. It's it's a big industry 0:23:14.040 --> 0:23:16.560 and Russia was actually, i believe the biggest or the 0:23:16.560 --> 0:23:19.520 second biggest exporter in the world before the war started, 0:23:19.640 --> 0:23:22.359 and they had a major kind of collapse because you know, 0:23:22.440 --> 0:23:25.879 they a lot of their customers were the West, and 0:23:25.960 --> 0:23:28.280 they all got sent they all started sentioning Russia, So 0:23:28.359 --> 0:23:29.960 that industry had took a big hit. 0:23:30.920 --> 0:23:33.879 So let's work out what could have got Sinitsin into 0:23:33.960 --> 0:23:37.960 hot water. The first lea there is what Sergey just mentioned. 0:23:38.320 --> 0:23:41.560 Russia's potash industry nose dive in after it was hit 0:23:41.640 --> 0:23:45.520 with war related sanctions. That is obviously going to affect 0:23:45.560 --> 0:23:49.080 a man who's the CEO of the biggest potash company 0:23:49.200 --> 0:23:52.919 in Kaliningrad. But even by Krimlin standards, they could hardly 0:23:52.920 --> 0:23:55.760 blame sinits In for this. They're the ones that decided 0:23:55.760 --> 0:24:00.359 to invade Ukraine. Either way, the issue resolved itself. After 0:24:00.400 --> 0:24:04.800 the initial dip, the potash trade stabilized. Actually in some 0:24:04.840 --> 0:24:09.080 regions it became even more profitable due to scarcity. Russia 0:24:09.119 --> 0:24:12.560 worked around the sanctions and for them everything was fine. 0:24:13.520 --> 0:24:17.080 For some reason, though the profits of k potash did 0:24:17.080 --> 0:24:22.199 not reflect this. Sinitsin's company was losing money hand over fist. 0:24:25.359 --> 0:24:26.960 K Potash, who. 0:24:29.200 --> 0:24:32.480 Sinitsen worked for, was the head of with both companies 0:24:32.840 --> 0:24:40.399 since October twenty twenty two. He was not exactly helping 0:24:40.480 --> 0:24:43.840 the company's financial situation, right, Like from the nodes we 0:24:43.880 --> 0:24:46.840 have here, like he was in a very dire financial situation. 0:24:46.960 --> 0:24:48.720 Yeah, so what kind of happened is it sounds like 0:24:48.760 --> 0:24:50.640 there's basically a plan to. 0:24:50.640 --> 0:24:51.560 Create a factory. 0:24:51.640 --> 0:24:54.840 From my understanding, it's not fully operational yet and he's 0:24:54.920 --> 0:24:59.760 basically going around from the city, so from Kalingrad to 0:24:59.840 --> 0:25:02.320 the locals and kind of trying to make this thing work. 0:25:03.400 --> 0:25:07.160 Now, this is interesting. Sanitsen was getting pushed back locally. 0:25:07.640 --> 0:25:11.400 He needed to rapidly expand the operations of K Potash, 0:25:11.800 --> 0:25:14.240 but the people did not want the new factories on 0:25:14.280 --> 0:25:18.960 their land. K Potash went on a pr offensive to 0:25:19.040 --> 0:25:21.680 try and win over the residents, to let everyone know 0:25:21.760 --> 0:25:24.840 how many new jobs that would provide, how lucrative it 0:25:24.880 --> 0:25:27.399 would be for the town, and even paid for a 0:25:27.440 --> 0:25:30.479 big mural to be painted. They paid homage to a 0:25:30.640 --> 0:25:35.159 Soviet era fighter pilot. None of it worked. The people 0:25:35.320 --> 0:25:39.320 weren't having it. They could not be swayed this easy. 0:25:39.440 --> 0:25:43.600 This wasn't just some town hall meeting either. Locals actually 0:25:43.600 --> 0:25:46.520 took to the streets to protest k potash. 0:25:46.800 --> 0:25:48.160 They were very angry. 0:25:49.160 --> 0:25:51.960 There was an incident where the residents basically, the residents 0:25:52.000 --> 0:25:54.920 don't want any like construction, mining, et cetera kind of 0:25:54.960 --> 0:25:58.240 going on around them. It can be pretty destructive you 0:25:58.320 --> 0:25:59.600 have to like dig up, you know, like one of 0:25:59.600 --> 0:26:02.639 those giant like mining holes. It would be like a 0:26:02.640 --> 0:26:03.760 pretty large effect. 0:26:03.440 --> 0:26:04.080 In the community. 0:26:04.880 --> 0:26:07.119 And they actually stood up against it. They kind of 0:26:07.119 --> 0:26:10.239 the local said we don't want this year putin ended 0:26:10.320 --> 0:26:13.840 up stepping in. Well, you know, the government stepped in. 0:26:13.920 --> 0:26:16.480 They always kind of referred that like this issue got 0:26:16.560 --> 0:26:18.840 risen to putin and he stepped in, and they basically 0:26:19.080 --> 0:26:24.600 did like assessment. The residents wanted like canceled. They wanted 0:26:24.600 --> 0:26:26.800 the project completely canceled. But what ended up happening is 0:26:26.800 --> 0:26:28.480 they basically moved it a few I think it was 0:26:28.520 --> 0:26:31.200 just like a few kilometers down from the initial location. 0:26:31.560 --> 0:26:33.720 So they were like, Okay, this is still happening, but 0:26:33.960 --> 0:26:35.240 I guess we'll just move it over a bit. 0:26:35.680 --> 0:26:36.560 I believe it was the. 0:26:36.440 --> 0:26:39.959 Mine itself and the processing plant. So it was supposed 0:26:39.960 --> 0:26:42.280 to be kind of like the entire operation in one 0:26:42.320 --> 0:26:45.359 place they got slightly moved down, which you know was 0:26:45.520 --> 0:26:47.439 kind of like a victory for those residents, but it 0:26:47.440 --> 0:26:49.760 also didn't really address like it's still happening just a 0:26:49.800 --> 0:26:50.560