Keeping Crimea will cost less than Chechnya but more than Abkhasia and South Ossetia.
As part of Ukraine, Crimea was a subsidized region: more than half its budget was provided by the state. Moreover, the local authorities were granted the right to keep profit and sales tax money, slon.ru reports.
In 2014 about UAH 13 bn ($ 1.4 bn) were budgeted for Crimea, of which UAH 3 bn ($ 350 mln) are government grants.
Russia will have to give money not only to Crimean pensioners but also to a numberof investment projects, e.g.Crimea is planned to be connected to the power stations of Krasnodar region ($ 0.3-0.4 bn). A bridge over the Kerch Strait is to be built; company Volgamost owned by Vladimir Putin’s acquaintance Arkadiy Rotenberg is believed to be the design contractor.
www.belsat.eu/en, via slon.ru
