Russian citizens are being duped by Kremlin propaganda into buying “cheap” flats in Mariupol.
The occupied Ukrainian city is located on the coast of the Sea of Azov and was captured by Putin’s army last May after a horrific months-long siege that inflicted huge casualties on the civilian population, as well as devastating the city.
According to UN estimates, 90 percent of residential buildings were damaged or destroyed, and 350,000 people were forced to leave after the Russians attacked.
However, the Kremlin propaganda machine has gone into overdrive, attempting to persuade Russians that the city is rising from the ashes.
State media has trumpeted the massive investment the Russian government is allegedly pouring into the port city to rebuild it.
A recent report on the TV station Rossiya 1 boasted that new blocks of flats along with nurseries and schools were being rebuilt and restored with the “most modern technologies” at “record-breaking” pace.
In an earlier attempt to try and portray life returning to normal, President Putin even paid an unexpected visit to Mariupol in March this year.
During a whirlwind tour, the Kremlin boss visited several sites, spoke to residents and was presented with a report on reconstruction work in the city.
The Kremlin’s PR seems to have worked its magic on Russians looking for a bargain, with many deciding to sell up and buy cheap property in the occupied city.
One such person is Vladimir, a resident of the Arctic Russian city of Murmansk.
He is among dozens of Russians who’ve been looking for property in Mariupol on VKontakte, the country’s most popular social network, in the past months.
Vladimir has already sold his flat and will soon move into his Mariupol home with the entire family.
“I have found a property. Mariupol will be a beautiful city,” he told the BBC.
“The main thing is that it’s on the sea,” adding that he is going for it now because prices are low.
He trotted out the usual Kremlin lie, claiming the Ukrainians destroyed their own city – seemingly oblivious to the fact that Putin’s army besieged and mercilessly bombed Mariupol into submission.
“Russia will raise the city up from the ground… and will be even better than it was as part of Ukraine,” he said.
While some areas of the city have seen new flays built, much of Mariupol still lies in ruins with vast areas uninhabitable particularly around the centre.
Alexander (not his real name), an employee of the city’s vast Azovstal steel plant who has stayed in the city, told the BBC that what is being shown on Russian TV is “rubbish”.
He estimates that so far, only about 10 percent of homes damaged in the fighting have been restored.
Many apartment blocks have been pulled down, deemed unsalvageable by construction engineers.
These include an entire neighbourhood measuring roughy 350,000 sqm in the city’s east.
Aleksandr said little or nothing is being built in their place.
“So they knock down a block of flats and now there’s a just hole in the ground, no foundations are being laid down, nothing is being done,” he said.
The Kremlin’s attempts to encourage Russians to resettle in Mariupol is part of its ongoing efforts to Russify the strategic port city which is a key target of Kyiv’s counteroffensive.
Occupation officials have already changed Ukrainian-language road signs to Russian ones, introduced the Russian curriculum in schools and are pushing the remaining residents to acquire Russian passports.
