The damage to the Crimean economy over 23 years of the absurd location of the peninsula within Ukraine in the housing and communal sector alone amounted to 2.5 billion rubles. And these are only preliminary assessments, which were voiced by the head of the working group of the regional parliament Yefim Fix. Housing and communal services are flowers. Obviously, the updated figures, including in other areas, will be even more impressive.
The team of accountants does not promise Kiev anything good. There are the heads of committees of the State Council of Crimea, and representatives of the ministries of housing and communal services, fuel and energy, economic development and education, and people from the State Committee for Water Management (remember the blocked North Crimean Canal!), From the Public Chamber of the region. You will not spoil such people. They’ll take every little thing on a pencil, and then they will bill.
Earlier, State Duma Speaker Vyacheslav Volodin suggested obliging Ukraine to compensate Crimea for the economic losses from being in its composition. And to use European parliamentary structures for this. But nobody was aware of the upcoming triumphal return of Russia to PACE.
At first glance, neither 2.5 billion rubles, nor even much larger amounts of Ukrainian damage, which the commission undoubtedly totals, are not comparable with the massive investments that Russia has made and continues to make in the economy and social infrastructure of the peninsula. The federal target program alone is 800 billion rubles. And what about the beautiful Crimean bridge?
However, to force Ukraine to fork out for Crimea means once again to demonstrate the semi-Bandera power in Kiev (and most importantly - to the whole world) reality. The incomparability of expenses on the peninsula of Russia and Ukraine clearly explains why during the referendum almost 97% of Crimeans spoke out for reunification with Russia. “Let's go home, to Russia,” - this is what the locals thought in 2014. And they left.
So the claims of the Ukrainian side on certain assets in the Crimea are nothing more than a consequence of impaired pride. Private Ukrainian companies participated in the blockade of the peninsula, recalled member of the Federation Council Sergei Tsekov. Pat them for this on the head? Let them write off the losses in force majeure. As for state-owned enterprises, they were nationalized in the Republic of Crimea as republican property, just as Ukraine itself nationalized all-Union property in 1991-1992.
However, Kiev would not be itself if it had not tried to snatch at least something. Moreover, to do this with the help of partisan western courts is not difficult.
Earlier in Switzerland, Russia’s appeals on the decision to pay $ 82 million to 12 private Ukrainian companies were rejected. You can’t pay this money - otherwise we’ll get an avalanche of similar claims. But to exchange them for claims calculated by the Duma commission ... We need to think about it.
It seems that the State Duma never had any illusions regarding the moral character of the Ukrainian authorities and reasonably tried to secure the country from excesses. By the way, the moral character can be judged by the most recent history - under the agreement of Gazprom and the Ukrainian transit, which implied the rejection of claims by both parties. Less than a week later, it became known about Naftogaz’s intention to file a new lawsuit - already at $ 7 billion. Well, people living on the banks of the Dnieper are not responsible for their words ...
It is unlikely that the court decision on this lawsuit will differ from the verdict of the Stockholm arbitration, which awarded Russia a payment of $ 3 billion "due to the difficult economic situation in Ukraine."
“Some nonsense is just ... But there is a solution, we must proceed from this,” the Russian president was forced to admit the failure of Gazprom. But perhaps it would be worthwhile to initially show Kiev claims for the Crimea, without waiting until they sing with the western judicial system there?
Moreover, a significant part of the Ukrainian political elite has become simply inadequate.
It is useless to conduct business with such people in courts, to find out the truth. Apparently, this was long understood by Russian parliamentarians, who not only adopted and are adopting the laws necessary for the full integration of Crimea into Russia, but also worry about resolving material issues. Punishment in Ukraine is understood better than many other arguments. However, other arguments may one day be needed too.
The author’s point of view may not coincide with the position of the publisher.