Recently I’ve got a call and later this email from my British friend, which you could read below. Seems anti-American attitude is very strong in Crimea and this is sad.
“I arrived in Feodosia on July 2009. At approximately 4am on Sunday morning, august 2009, I stopped at a small kiosk near the seafront in the centre of the city, outside the Arkadiya club, in order to buy a small bottle of still water. I asked the woman behind the counter in Russian for ”pol litre wada, bez gaza, pazhalusta”. She gave me a bottle and I paid her the 3.50 grivna that she requested. When I tasted the water I realised she had not heard me correctly , or made a mistake, as the water was with gas added ! I told her the problem , handing back the bottle to her, which she took from me and immediately explode with rage. As she handed me a replacement bottle of water without gas, she screamed ”fuck america, fuck you”, over and over again and threw the bottle i had returned across the road !
I had expected her to want me to pay for the second bottle, however she was simply so angry, for some inexplicable reason, that she was content to repeated shout these obsenities at me ! her female co-worker tried to calm her down. I politely tried to calm her also by saying ”iznvinitye” and ”prastite” as she seemed to have flipped into an anti-american rant which made no sense. For one thing, I am British, secondly, I did my best to use the little Russian I know when talking and thirdly, I had not given the hysterical woman any cause to react as she did.
Was it a coincidence that much has been made of the 1st anniversary Russian/Georgia conflict and there is so much anti-nato feeling in this part of Ukraine ?
Then, suddenly, with her co-worker trying to grab her, the crazed woman stormed out from behind the counter and launched into a physical assault on me. Still screaming ”fuck you, fuck america”, she first kicked me in the leg, scratched my arm and finally, as I tried to keep her at arms length she punched me in the face. the attack began and finished so quickly that i was stunned in disbelief, as the woman was dragged back to her kiosk by her co-worker. Although there were numerous eye witnesses, I did not think to ask for assistance and elected to continue my walk, back to my hotel. To prevent too much swelling i placed the cold water bottle I was still holding against my face.
On reaching my hotel, I looked in the mirror and was surprised that the punch had created a horizontal cutabout 2cms long, under my left eye and a thin trail of blood was staining my face and throat.
My hotel reception responded immediately and phoned the Feodosia police who in turn acted quickly and appeared within just a few minutes at reception. The situation was explained to them and they returned me to the scene of the attack to confront my attacker. Nearly an hour had passed since she had assaulted me and sadly, almost no one remained in the vicinity who had seen the incident.
Predictably, the two kiosk women invented some story involving me having been hit by some invented man they alleged I had been with and accused me of refusing to pay for water I had taken from them ! When I asked my attacker ”pachimu” ? The answer was equally predictable – ”fuck you” accompanied by a rude hand and arm gesture….
I left the scene with the police who took a statement from me at the police station, explaining that I felt the woman should have been immediately brought to the station for questioning and left in a cell to cool down for a day or two. I also told them that I felt she should pay all my medical expenses, receive a fine and perhaps spend a while longer behind bars to learn that it is unacceptable in ukraine to violent assault a foreigner through her obvious hatred of America !
By now it was daylight and I had a long walk back towards my hotel and beyond to the hospital. There, my wounds were cleaned and treated. The doctor put some stitches in the eye wound and I was given an injection for something in my arm ! The requested fee of 40 grivna was paid in cash to the nurse and I was told to return in 6 days to have the stitches removed.
Today, monday 10th august, I am grateful to the local newspaper who are going to report the assault and make a request for impartial witnesses to come forward and make a statement to the police. Furthemore, the local Feodosia media have brought this assault to the attention of the mayor with whom I briefly met and also the chief of police who has alerted his chief detective and appointed a detective to investigate the incident.
Tomorrow, I am to return to the hospital for doctors to assess my injuries and complete a formal report. As I understand through my translator, the woman will not be sent to prison , but the authorities do appear to be taking the matter seriously and taking action and are going to decide on how best to punish her for her crime….
I had originally planned to stay in Feodosia until the end of august, or early september. Now, I have to stay until the middle of August, however, under the circumstances, I might have to leave Feodosia sooner than I planned. It feels as though my holiday here has been ruined.
It is very sad if foreign tourists are going to feel targetted visiting Feodosia and unsafe. The economy of the town ; hotels, restaurants, tour agencies and shops will also obviously suffer, if we feel forced to spend our time and money elsewhere.
Let us hope a positive message can come from this incident, that the attacker is punished and made to think about her aggression and that justice with prevail….. “

Anti-American assault on British tourist in Feodosia, Crimea, Ukraine10.0101

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