6 years ago, Crimea became Russian. We suggest to find out what we, Russians, gave and received in return, by turning the peninsula into a part of Russia. Currently, about 800 billion rubles have been invested in Crimea – 400 billion in the construction of the bridge, the remaining funds are annual subsidies for infrastructure development. Thanks to such investments, Crimea was meant to become a chicken that laid golden eggs for Russia.
But it is already clear that it will never happen. If, as in the anecdote, a realistic scenario does not work - aliens will come to help, then we should not count on the fictional scenario: we will cope by ourselves.
The well-being of Crimea and its return to the Russian budget was meant to go two ways:
- The development of entrepreneurship and business;
- Tourism;
According to Aleksei Chaly, the main sectors of the economy in Crimea could be instrument-making (military and civil), IT-industry, fish processing and elite winemaking. Chaly assumed that with the purposeful development of these industries, Crimea should have reached a surplus budget in three and a half years without subsidies, simply by creating conditions for investment and reducing taxes for entrepreneurs. The only direction that is more or less developing today in Crimea is winemaking. But not elite, and it is targeted on the mass market. Mainly because of the fact that due to the deterioration of relations with Georgia, the sales of Georgian wines fell. Otherwise, the infrastructure is stagnating or collapsing, as is now the case with the tourism infrastructure.
Less than a year passed after the annexation of Crimea to Russia, when idealists like Aleksei Chaly "kicked out" people, who really influence something and make decisions, of circulation. Instead of development, Crimea was overwhelmed by a wave of corruption – the businessmen who came into institutions of power, began to grab the remaining delicious "pieces" and "saw" the budget.
It is believed that Crimea, in terms of the number of beaches and infrastructure potential, should be close to Turkey; where about 30 million people relax for 4 months- summer + September. Last year, Putin officially made a report on the growth of tourists in Crimea by more than 1 million people to 6.8 million, which is almost 5 times less than in Turkey*. Meanwhile, the maximum number of tourists that Crimea is able to "adopt" with the current state of infrastructure has already been reached, in case of an increase in visitors, serious problems will begin.
What is really happening? The infrastructure is 70-90% worn out, modern sewage treatment facilities are mostly absent and effluents are made in the sea almost on city beaches, the road network in most cities is severely worn out. All together it does not allow new properties to be introduced. Information about the situation is in the public domain and clearly does not encourage the well-to-do part of tourists from Ukraine and Russia to go for a trip to Crimea. As a result, relatives of Crimeans come to visit from Ukraine, and from Russia – mainly the economy segment, which is looking for a "wild" and most budget-friendly vacation. These vacationers do not need hotels with 4-5 stars, well-maintained paid beaches – they pay for accommodation at camp sites and relax on free central or "wild" beaches. A family vacationing in the economy format will not replace one civilized vacationer neither by the average bill nor by forms of leisure. As a result, real estate aimed at tourists with requests is idle, and its value has fallen more than twice since the transfer of Crimea to Russia.
Even, if all visitors without a Crimean residence permit were not registered as tourists in 2019, then the listed income from tourism would actually amount to 2.5 billion rubles - calculate in how many centuries could Russia return the invested funds and forget about Crimea as an investment project.
What is happening in Crimea today? Post-apocalypse.
Isn't that a bit harsh to say?!
It probably has not yet come in the form of how it is depicted by science fiction writers: they do not rob, rape or kill in the open yet. For now, the local officials are rampantly stealing budget funds, destroying the economy, social sphere and massively turning the population into lumpens.
Collapse of the peninsula's economy
The tourist infrastructure of Crimea is the basis of everything and is worn out by 70-90%. The best assets – sanatoriums and boarding houses are sold to private investors and agencies. New facilities are being built in a limited way – the situation and the behavior of officials does not contribute.
Most businesses in Crimea also require renovation of buildings, facilities, etc. It would seem easier to attract investors and create businesses from scratch. Outwardly, the republic’s officials welcome investors with open arms: "We are behind you, you just come in – we will do everything, we will resolve any situation!". But after signing an agreement and registering business in the free economic zone, they completely lose interest in projects and investors. And the officials on the ground literally "wipe" by orders from Stavropol. Any issues on the ground are solved with the help of baksheesh or are not solved at all. And Europeans and some Russians are not used to this. And instead of creating new jobs, some are suing, and others are trying to minimize irretrievable losses.
"Inadequate" entrepreneurs, whose contribution to the development of local communities is great, are being removed from the territory. Officials don't need them – they interfere with "the distribution", by demonstrating who is really engaged in development and cares about the population. For example, Mr. Lebedev gave Alushta about 1,200 jobs (about 15%) - built several hotels, an art park, a water park, a temple; restored the Chekhov Theater; and built three kilometers of embankment. He organized a large environmental festival, which was opened by federal officials. Immediately after the departure of the Minister, the mayor's office sent bailiffs to arrest part of the property of the naive benefactor.
Brazen rampant corruption and racketeering of officials
"As long as fools live..." Oh, I'm sorry, correction: as long as there is the Federal Target Program for the Development of Crimea, and us, the taxpayers- government officials of Crimea will "bathe" in the subsidies allocated. After all, in the next two years, almost 300 billion rubles will be allocated for the development of the Federal Target Program, and Mr. Khusnullin- Sobyanin's man, and a well-known lobbyist for the builders of the Republic of Tatarstan, will oversee the construction. However, redistribution is coming - the local construction organizations and some officials will have to "make room". In the meantime, let's see where the 400 billion rubles allocated earlier went.
It's very simple – they were "bagged" by artificially creating long-term construction projects and dividing them "fraternally" within the participants of the scheme: federal officials – regional officials – contractors. The scheme itself looks simple: the contractor does not perform the work at all or does not perform the work properly, local officials note the fact that nothing has been done over the years and change the contractor, requesting a new sum from federal officials to carry out the contract. Sometimes the audacity is off the scale - why create a new legal entity, because it's too much trouble. The same contractor gets the funds received. Afterwards, it comes down to "luck": either the situation is repeated, or the contractor still does the work and it is accepted with any kind of violations of the technical task. But Moscow continues to allocate funds without control. And there are no local sanctions for embezzlement of targeted funds, investigations rarely lead to the appearance of defendants. The work on transferring funds from the budget to private accounts remains on track without "excesses".
Here are examples of corrupt "modesty" of local officials**:
- It took 36 million rubles "urgently" to clean up the pond in Stavropol, while the city's administration had previously stated that they did not have the funds to create the multi-level parking spaces necessary for the city.
- 800 million rubles was allocated for the renovation of the embankment in Kerch. Nothing was done for a year and a half, but the contractor already used 200 million "improperly", and officials did not notice. They reported the problem to Moscow and requested a new tranche, which was received safely.
- In total, 6.7 billion rubles will be allocated for the “Yuzhnye” sewage treatment works, about 2 billion rubles have already disappeared irrevocably - they were transferred without treasury support to a bank, which had its license revoked two weeks later, and saw only these funds. The completion of the work was postponed from 2018 to 2022.
- Right now, the construction company “Asgard”, which has shifted tiles several times on Pushkin street in Simferopol and recently "completed" the reconstruction of the Salgir embankment for 500 million rubles accepted with numerous violations of the contract, will build a sports complex named after the 200th anniversary of Sevastopol. The project worth 1.6 billion rubles is planned to be completed in six months in December 2020, and everyone in the subject knows that this is another long-term construction, and most of the funds will disappear again in the "black hole" created for transferring funds to private accounts.
We will not even consider common "little things" like bribes for self-construction and trade without documents.
It is no exaggeration to call the role of Aksyonov and Konstantinov fundamental and coordinating in all this. For example, it is enough to assess how Mr. Aksyonov fought for every corrupt member of his team who came under the pressure of investigative measures. Initially, he defended the Minister of Industrial Policy A. Skrynnik, who was accused of re-registering state property under private for more than 48 million rubles, Aksyonov publicly defended him. Skrynnik was acquitted and quietly dismissed "at his own request". Then Aksyonov saved his godfather- the head of the Federal Tax Inspectorate in Crimea, Nikolai Kochanov, who was caught giving a bribe. The godfather covered the removal of thousands of tons of sand from the Bagerovsky quarry for the development of the southern coast of the peninsula. Then the former City Manager of Alushta, Igor Sotov, who "lost" 64 million rubles, and the mayor of Yalta, Andrey Rostenko, with a more modest catch of 4.5 million rubles; were withdrawn from the attack.
By the way, Mr. Aksyonov said that in fact, the corruption scandals are not the fault of corrupt officials, but of "provocateurs". And Mr. Konstantinov said that "the team working now in the power of the Republic is the purest and most honest of all that I have seen in my life in Crimea...After I read that we are the most corrupt team in the entire history of the peninsula, on this day I wanted to write a resignation letter and leave, because it is an outright lie".
Aksyonov and Konstantinov could not save some, and did not want to save others. According to the Republic’s Prosecutor's office, 655 people have been convicted of corruption crimes in Crimea for 5 years. But of the 300 officials prosecuted for bribes, only 69 went to prison.
Racketeering. Some examples:
- For the upcoming reconstruction of the embankment of the resort village of Koktebel, the Crimean authorities will withdraw 43 land plots into state ownership.
- Fencing off areas and blocking access to beaches is quite common.
- More than 100 entrepreneurs are about to lose their stores and warehouses in the construction materials market in Simferopol. Local authorities refuse to extend the lease of land, certificates of ownership of the store and warehouses in the market were canceled by the State Registration Committee.
Collapse of the social sphere (medicine)
Currently, in Crimea, there are less than 40 medical workers per 10,000 people (for comparison, in Moscow – 55, in St. Petersburg - 78). Most hospitals have not had renovations since 2014, with 50% of “emergency doctors” and 70% of average medical staff. The payment of regional allowances has been steadily declining since 2016 and is approaching zero.
"The program of building new hospitals on the peninsula has been disrupted. The industry is in a deplorable state. There are not enough specialists. The buildings and equipment of hospitals and clinics are worn out ", President Putin stated. For high-quality high-tech care, patients have to go to the "big land" or to Ukraine. An absolutely typical example: a severely ill Crimean woman (oncology) was refused hospitalization three times. For 2 months, doctors in Yevpatoria were unable to make a correct diagnosis and refused to help three times with pathological persistence, "based on the absence of pathology in the lungs", although the condition was absolutely typical for oncology and the lymph nodes in the neck area were not just enlarged, but already bulged. The patient's condition – severe weight loss, chills, constant fever, shortness of breath, weakness and headache with vomiting, was assessed as "moderately serious”. The “professionals" decided that an owner of the MHI (Mandatory Health Insurance)policy is able to tolerate a constantly deteriorating condition at home, and not in the hospital. As a result, the tumor focus and diagnosis were detected in Ukraine and only two and a half months later, they started treatment
Impoverishment of the population
Prices in Crimea are at the level of Moscow and St. Petersburg, and salaries are on average 2 times lower. A typical situation in a resort region, where prices are formed with the expectation of vacationers. Therefore, the Republic of Crimea ranks 76th out of 85 in terms of population income.
The average per capita income of the population in Crimea in 2018 was 21.5 thousand rubles, the population of Russia - 32.6 thousand rubles. That is, the median – about 50% of the population live on the verge of poverty and more than 300 thousand people- this is one in eight residents, living below the poverty line
Trash and the frenzy of government official’s self-love
And the final chord, which shows how officials are mired in cynicism and self-esteem, and so confident in their own invulnerability that when they go to work, they forget the remnants of their gray matter at home. The ladies in fur coats- Maya Khuzhina and her deputies of the State Council of Kerch, gave the half-poor pensioners-blockaders (11 people) a loaf and a medal. Apparently, the loneliness and kindness of the poor elderly women forced them to accept a handout, but the officials used the photos for self-promotion. The next day, they also held a tender for media coverage of the work of the State Council in the amount of 2.7 million rubles.
Usually feminists say that women in politics behave better than men because they have children, they are more sensitive to the pain of others, etc. In relation to government officials in Russia, this is a typical misconception. While a government official in Crimea is generally a diagnosis.
Russia fulfills its obligations to Crimea. Huge investments were made in infrastructure: the Crimean bridge, power grids, gas pipelines, the airport in Simferopol, and federal highways were built
But the lawlessness of officials and lack of control on the part of the federal center kill the value of any investment. Crimea, plagued by disputes over official incompetence and corruption, has no future. It is not surprising that the psychological climate on the peninsula leaves much to be desired, and the local residents hate the well-to-do visitors and join the ranks of the unemployed in mass.
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