Vitaly Portnikov: Crimea Island

There is an exact symbolism that it was on the day when Vladimir Putin and Dmitry Medvedev were in the Crimea that new reports of electricity disabling on the peninsula annexed by Russia came. It is one thing to lay flowers to the memorials and visit opera festivals, and quite another - to achieve infrastructure improvements. It was this in Crimea for more than three years that have passed since the peninsula join Russia that has not happened.

Crimea and during the stay in Ukraine, there was no particular success in the creation of modern infrastructure. And because the rest of Ukraine did not differ in these successes, and because even against its background, the autonomous Republic of Crimea stood out by the dominance of criminal clans, dividing the peninsula among themselves until the Russian occupation, and remained in power and after. This, in fact, was always the essence of unwritten agreements between Kiev and Simferopol: we do not intervene in your affairs, and you provide stability in the territory of "feeding". The Crimean autonomy in Ukraine was primarily an autonomy of criminals - and in order to achieve changes for the better, it was enough to get rid of this criminals.

Russian annexation only strengthened the position of criminal clans. While the rest of Ukraine after 2014 received a real chance to change, the Kremlin literally blessed the Crimea, leaving it in the hands of various Aksenovs, Konstantinov and their Moscow curators. As the various Crimean clans in Ukrainian times led the peninsula, we know well. Why should something change for the better now? Or was the Crimea in the country in which bureaucratic corruption is outlined, the population controls the authorities, does not saw budget money, and the possibility of the friends of the head of state is not given? Why is Rotenberg, who got the opportunity to master money on the Crimean bridge, differs from Yanukovych Jr. or a team of immigrants from the Donetsk region, who landed in Crimea after 2010? What changes for the better in Crimea in this case can we talk?

The annexation changed not only the boundaries, but also the natural connection of the peninsula with the mainland

From the point of view of the development of Crimea, Russia put itself on the Procrustean bed of problems created by the annexation. Water from Ukraine no longer arrives, which means that the agriculture of Crimea, which acquired a modern form only after the transfer of the peninsula from the RSFSR of the Ukrainian SSR, actually ordered to live long. The sanctions regimes of Ukraine and Western countries practically deprived the Crimea of the international aviation message, cruises, railways, roads from the mainland, and at the same time, the Russian authorities continue to talk about successes in the tourism industry. All that Crimea received naturally through the mainland is now trying to provide with the help of various bridges across the sea. But Crimea is not an island, but a peninsula. You can prove for an arbitrarily long time that violent feeding is more useful than the usual meal. But we must be aware that the annexation has changed not only the boundaries, but also the natural connection of the peninsula with the mainland. The Crimea became the "island" for the first time in its history, because Perekop had never previously been to him neither state, nor geographical, nor infrastructure border.

But there is one more question: does the Russian leadership want to develop Crimea? Does Vladimir Putin need his “Self -Success”? It seems that this is not Putin, but we are conceived by the usual stereotypes of the Soviet era, when we tried from the GDR by hook or by crook to make a "socialist candy" into the warning of the West. For the Russian leadership, it is important not to master, but by retention of the territory. That is why Abkhazia or South Ossetia lie in the real ruins and can no longer serve as an example to follow or at least a conditional alternative to Georgia. In the same ruins, "liberators" will gradually turn Crimea. And Vladimir Putin will, as before, calmly ride the peninsula - open obelisks and attend concerts. He goes to Abkhazia.

Vitaly Portnikov - Kiev journalist, author and host of the Radio Liberty program "Road to Freedom"

Opinions expressed under the heading "Law" may not reflect the point of view of the Radio Liberty editorial