The occupation head of Crimea Sergey Aksyonov said that he visited the lion park “Taigan” and promised to support its owner Oleg Zubkov in further development.
Zubkov is a scandalous Crimean businessman who owns the Taigan lion park and the Skazka zoo on the occupied peninsula. The man has had pro-Ukrainian rhetoric in the past, but has recently turned into a mouthpiece for Kremlin propaganda on the peninsula. The businessman called Russian head of Crimea Sergey Aksyonov a hero of the “Crimean Spring” in a recent interview.
Why, after so many years of conflict between the scandalous businessman and the Russian authorities of occupied Crimea, Aksyonov and Zubkov have started to demonstrate mutual loyalty, activists of the #LiberateCrimea movement told.
The Crimean branch of the international movement for the de-occupation of Crimea #LiberateCrimea, citing its sources, anonymously told “Krym. Realia” that such a thing could only happen with Zubkov’s agreement to make regular illegal cash contributions for the Russian authorities.
“Immediately after the illegal annexation of Crimea with Russia, the “winning team” created its “black treasury”, where Crimean businessmen began to make voluntary and compulsory contributions. But all those who refused began to “koshmarise”. For example, Resul Velilyaev ended up in Lefortovo for a year. Zubkov was pressed by inspections, he tried to fight back through public support, but this does not work in the Russian realities. After the start of Russia’s full-scale war against Ukraine, the Crimean “black scythe” was used to finance Aksyonov’s “private army”. The pressure on Zubkov increased, it surrendered and began to make contributions, so Aksyonov’s attitude changed dramatically – it began to show public loyalty to the scandalous businessman”, – commented on the situation Crimea. Realities activist of the movement #LiberateCrimea.
The #LiberateCrimea movement added that it was closely following all of Zubkov’s public actions, because with his recent actions, Zubkov is putting himself in the status of an accomplice of the occupation of Crimea.