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We publish this interview with one stipulation: the source asked to remain anonymous, so Information Service cannot guarantee reliability of the information given. All the attempts to confirm this information with the company’s official persons remain futile, though it is known that Albert Potapov is staying in Moscow during the period of his company’s fall. He had all the opportunities to cross all the t’s publicly or at least confidentially.
‘On Friday (10/14 – editorial) evening the atmosphere was very tense. Agents came with an understandable desire to crush the office, and the conditions for self-organizing of the employees were not ideal. Nevertheless, on Saturday several employees worked till 11:30 p. m. People who don’t care for anything won’t stay in the office after such a hard day. Of course not everything is ideal. For example, there’s still no information on the site, no ticket lists. We haven’t asked partners yet not to sell the tickets for a couple of days and give agencies opportunity to buy them at cost, and so on. And still people came and did everything they could. There was really a big hope that Albert Potapov and Dasha Gorbunova (one of the company’s employees, unofficially second person in ‘Premier’ – editorial) will find money very soon.’
‘… And on Saturday council of war took place in Albert’s ‘headquarters’. Decision was made to borrow at least $10,000 from acquaintances to redeem some tickets and send at least tourists from regions home. And also we planned to arrange delay of payment for tourists that were going to Tunisia and UAE the next week, with accepting companies. But on Sunday it became clear that no one is really doing anything. Only Golikov family was trying to find money (Svetlana Golikova is company’s deputy director). They gathered $3,000 all together. Albert didn’t contact his employees, he’s still out of shape, in best cases he was speaking through Dasha. He didn’t discuss business, but gave auto training phrases, like ‘Everything will be all right.’
‘So on Monday silent riot started. It was protest not completely realized. No one is able to evaluate the paradox of the situation yet, to say that such things shouldn’t be done. Maybe that was the reason for people deciding not to come to work when Dasha Gorbunova related Albert’s request for everybody to come to work on Monday. They just stayed at home and called agencies according to list, told those who had already paid who to contact and what to do. Of course this is wildly ineffective, but… And we also called those with confirmed reservations who haven’t paid yet, and warned them not to pay in any circumstances! It turned out there are agencies that haven’t heard about ‘Premier’s bankruptcy. They were going to transfer money through cashless settlement.’
When publishing this interview by an anonymous source, BANKO didn’t have slandering the name of ‘Premier Travel Service’ company head as its object. Also we didn’t want to tamper with his private life. We’ll be thankful to him for any reasonable comment. While there are no comments, we rely on data from other sources. BANKO reporters regard it as their duty to make known all the incoming information that sheds light on yet another tragedy in travel industry. This unfortunate event reflects badly on actions and prospects of a diversity of agencies that entrusted ‘Premier’ company with their tourists. Besides, the bankrupt operator mustn’t bury professional reputation of specialists who struggled honestly with circumstances beyond their control.
