During the construction of the Crimean bridge, the most modern technologies were used and it was created for centuries, Russian President Vladimir Putin said.

“Judging by what the experts say, it will be for many, many decades, and maybe for centuries. It is only necessary to service, repair everything on time, and it can stand for centuries, of course, ”said the Russian leader in the program“ Moscow. Kremlin. Putin "on the channel" Russia 1 ".

The Russian leader recalled that three times in history, attempts were made to build a bridge across the Kerch Strait, "everything was unsuccessful, everything was demolished."

“There were no such technologies before, but we have appeared. And then - everything worked well, worked hard and a lot, and almost everything - on their own technologies, ”the head of state added.

Putin also called the "builders" of the bridge builders, stressing that they are happy with the result they achieved.

“A feeling of delight and satisfaction for the work done with a good result. You saw what kind of people there, their eyes burn, they themselves are simply happy for the result they achieved. Thank you very much, ”he pointed out.

Recall, on Monday, December 23, Vladimir Putin launched traffic on the Crimean bridge’s railway, passing it on a special passenger train from Kerch to Taman. In addition, the head of state watched in a teleconference mode the departure of the Tavria train No. 7/8 from the Moscow railway station in St. Petersburg. About 600 people followed the train, including 33 train crew members.

“The event is important both for Crimea and Sevastopol - for the entire south of Russia, because, of course, such infrastructure facilities as the grandiose bridge that we built will affect the entire economy. But I want to tell you that we are not launching it first, but we are restoring this movement, ”Putin said.

The first Tavria passenger train, which crossed the Kerch Strait bridge, arrived in Sevastopol on the morning of December 25, breaking 2,471 km in 43.5 hours.

In addition, on Tuesday, December 24, the first train departed for the Crimea from Moscow, after 33 hours he arrived in Simferopol.

At the same time, Rostourism expects an increase in tourist flow to Crimea by 20% after the launch of trains. In this way, the peninsula's record-breaking performance could be improved. In October, the head of the republic, Sergei Aksyonov, said that about 6.9 million people have rested in the resorts of Crimea since the beginning of 2019, which made it possible to set a record for the number of tourists accepted for the entire post-Soviet period.

The launch of rail links between mainland and island parts of Russia provoked dissatisfied comments from the West and Ukraine.

Kiev sent a note of protest to Moscow in connection with the fact that the Crimean bridge was built "without the consent of Ukraine and with a gross violation of international law." At the same time, the prosecutor’s office of the so-called “Autonomous Republic of Crimea” opened a criminal case against the company “Grand Express”, which organized the railway connection, under Part 1 of Art. 332 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine (“Illegal transport of persons across the state border of Ukraine”). In addition, the Verkhovna Rada deputy from the European Solidarity Party, Alexei Goncharenko, expressed the opinion that thanks to the Crimean Bridge, the Kuban will “be closer” to Ukraine. In addition, the passengers of the Tavria train, in particular, Alexandra Petrushkevich, who wrote red “Lipstick” on the train “Hurray” and “Crimea”, were added to the base of the scandalous famous Ukrainian site “Peacemaker”.

View this Instagram post

So Crimean Alexandra Mikhailovna met the first train to the peninsula.

Posted by Margarita Simonyan (@_m_simonyan_) Dec 25, 2019 at 5:03 am PST

The European Union condemned the launch of the movement, calling the incident "another violation of the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine." The US Embassy in Ukraine announced Russia's “flagrant disrespect” for “the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine.”

We emphasize that in the middle of May 2018, the opening of the automobile part of the Crimean bridge took place. Russian President Vladimir Putin also took part in the ceremony on May 15, 2018, and the official launch of the movement took place at 05:30 on May 16.

As of November 2019, over 8 million vehicles, including 103 thousand buses and 795 thousand trucks, drove through the infrastructure facility.

The bridge across the Kerch Strait, which connects the Crimea and the Krasnodar Territory, is the longest in Russia: its length is 19 km.