Yes, Vitia paid Merlin a long time ago for his anti-royal attitude; this seems obvious to me. What I don't personally understand is this (I don't read minds; I just record what was written in the thread by the organizers). The application from Korolev was promised yesterday. Today, it turns out that due to unforeseen circumstances, it's not ready – so, they should cancel the application process and resolve their unforeseen issues. And they shouldn't be posting standard prices on the forum that have nothing to do with the actual application. If Vitia can't get to the base and agree on all the points that were stated, then someone else should do it. And if the royal organizing committee can't resolve this issue (which I see from the discussion and the organizers' posts), they should calmly take a step back and not try to do something that the organizing committee is not ready for at the moment.