Text version
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[music]
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Can you build a dacha right on the
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state border? You can, if you are a
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general in the FSB (Russia’s security service) who guards that very
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state border. Without further
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preamble, let’s head to the
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border between Russia and Finland in
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Leningrad Region. What exactly is the
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state border? It is essentially two
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control zones: the so-called border
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zone, from 5 to 30 km (3 to 19 miles) wide. To be in
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it, you must either be a local resident or
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obtain permission from the FSB, and the
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engineering and technical installations zone, which is
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the last 2–3 km (1.2–1.9 miles) before the border. Being
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there is completely forbidden. If you go
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in there, you can face criminal
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liability for attempting to illegally
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cross the state border.
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Now let’s move from the satellite
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map to the photos on Google Maps.
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They allow us to see, well,
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what is actually happening on the border between
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the border zone, where a permit is required, and
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the engineering and technical installations zone,
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where being present is completely prohibited. Here we see
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what is usually shown in films about
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border guards: we see a fence, and it
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has a weak electric current running through it,
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which triggers an alarm if an intruder
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touches it. We see a tracking
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strip where the intruder’s footprints
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are left behind—just like in
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the movies. This is the whole
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classic image of border guards with a
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dog walking along the fence—it is happening
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right here. Now look: one of the
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photos of the area shows us a
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wonderful harrow with which
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the border guards make their
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tracking control strip.
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A gate leading to someone’s dacha. At this
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point, of course, we simply refuse
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to believe our own eyes, because this is
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simply impossible. Inside the zone of
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engineering and technical installations, land
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is entirely withdrawn from civilian
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circulation; it cannot be registered as
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private property, and of course no one would ever
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allow a dacha to be built inside this
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restricted strip. So just to be sure,
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we look at a satellite image from above
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and, damn, we really do see someone’s
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dacha on the lakeshore in exactly the place
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where that should be completely impossible. We
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still refuse to believe
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what is happening and assume that this is not a
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dacha at all, but a secret border post.
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Maybe what looks to us like the
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main house is actually a barracks,
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and this here by the shore is not a bathhouse but
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a kennel where the border dogs live. And
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over here, for example, just a storage room for binoculars
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and green berets. So we go to
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Rosreestr (Russia’s property registry) and look at the documents for this
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real estate. Alas, the official papers
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show us that everything is much worse than
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we could have imagined. It is
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indeed a dacha belonging to
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a private individual who somehow
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managed, inconceivably, even to register it as
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private property. And everything becomes
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completely clear once we simply
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Google the full name of the dacha’s owner.
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The mysterious Nikolai Leonidovich
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Kozik turns out to be a colonel general
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in the FSB, deputy head of the Border
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Service, responsible—you’ll laugh—for
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protecting the state border. That is,
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he guards it, and he privatized it too.
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We moved away from the heavy barriers that
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existed in Soviet times, that is, from
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barbed wire and so on. There are new
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technical approaches now that
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are being implemented today. Very convenient.
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It turns out you can save quite a lot
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on security, because anyone who climbs onto your
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dacha to steal apples or dig up potatoes
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will be considered a border violator.
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You could even shoot him
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during detention. I wouldn’t be surprised if the
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general even has his own little
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personal gate with a small personal
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barrier through which he can cross the
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border if you pay at the cashier’s window.
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So the next time you
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hear the pompous phrase, “The border
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is locked up tight,” don’t forget to add
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to yourself: “unless it’s an FSB general’s
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dacha.” That’s the story of
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modern Russia. You see, millions
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of citizens are fined every day and dragged into court
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because their dacha is improperly
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registered, or their garden plot or garage
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doesn’t match the approved plan, or their tiny shop
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is out of line. The state hates all these people and
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fights them. But when you are the state itself,
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even the state border turns into a dacha
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co-op for you. Subscribe to our channel—
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this is where the truth is told.