Total commercialization of the border and regional feudalization: lessons from Komarnytskyi’s escape

Total commercialization of the border and regional feudalization: lessons from Komarnytskyi’s escape

Total commercialization of the border with complete feudalization of the regions. This is the main conclusion that can be drawn from the story of Denys Komarnytskyi’s departure. And it’s a big problem that society has finally paid attention to.

So please tell me, how is Denys Komarnytskyi’s smuggling, which cost him tens of thousands of dollars, different from smuggling a truck of cigarettes from Ukraine or a truck of electronics into Ukraine, which cost about the same?

It’s not different at all.

All of it is goods that illegally cross the border with the assistance of individuals who should be preventing it.
And what kind of goods these are – a person or valuable items – no longer matters. It’s just that in the case of Komarnytsky, it’s an artificial product that has caught the attention of the entire country, thus resulting in such outrage on social media.

That’s the only difference.

What’s more, just like in the case of Komarnytskyi, the law enforcement officers involved in his escort often accompany goods as well – precisely to avoid interception by other law enforcement agencies.

Only business.

There’s no issue that can’t be resolved at the border if you have a budget of a few tens of thousands of dollars.

And if we’re talking about not tens but hundreds of thousands, as in the case of Komarnytskyi, then the people who facilitated his departure knowingly took the risk, understanding the possible consequences – detention, dismissal, and public condemnation. But the payoff is worth it. So they play the game.

In this process, the role of regional elites is crucial.
In Kyiv, you can ban something, put someone on the wanted list, or add them to the sanctions lists. But in the regions, there are their own "gods." The local prosecutor, the local cop, the head of the agency branch, or a businessman, to whom all of the above are godparents.

And it is the decisions of these people, not those in Kyiv, that determine whether the border will be opened, whether there will be an escort, and whether there will be security.

Control from Kyiv is just a formality. Try detaining someone there – the security forces will confirm that it’s quite a quest.

It is due to such "control" of the border that a whole layer of feudal pseudo-elites has formed.

Let me repeat: in Komarnytskyi’s case, it caught the attention of the entire country. In other stories, they just go unnoticed.

The global porousness of the border has become commonplace.

P.S. And we still don’t know how Komarnytskyi crossed the border himself. But I’m willing to bet that we can guess.