On March, 16 pension and welfare payments to the residents of Crimea were stopped due to reasons beyond of their control, Ukraine’s Ministry of Welfare states. Probably, this is just the beginning of financial difficulties which the Crimeans will face after withdrawing Ukraine.
Sunday’s referendum and rough-and-ready declared independence failed to provide salutary influence on the economic and social situation on the peninsula. UAH 400 mln have not been received by Crimean OAPs this month.
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{movie}Crimea: lack of fuel, food, OAPs reckon on Russia (ENG subs)|right|15435{/movie}
According to Ukraine’s Minister of Welfare Lyudmila Denisova, there is no technical capability to transfer the rest of money. Crimea has withdrawn from the electronic payment system of Ukraine’s Treasury.
‘Those occupants consider Crimea as a separate state; yesterday Russia’s Constitution came into effect there. After their disconnecting from our electronic payment system Crimea’s treasury fails to function as part of the shared network’.
Every month Ukraine used to transfer more than UAH 1 bn of pension payments to Crimea. But for Ukrainian authorities’ earlier transfer Crimea pensioners would not have received their money this month. OAPs in Simferopol are a bit upset at delays but they hope for Russia’s assistance.
RESIDENTS OF CRIMEA:
‘It seems to me Russia will help us with that’
‘Anyway, there will be talks, negotiations with the Finance Ministries. I believe everything will be settled down in a month or two’
Russia’s Central Bank expressed its readiness to get mobile processing centres up and running within a week. Such scheme was once piloted in Abkhazia and South Ossetia.
Having earned Moscow’s political support, Crimea has lost Ukraine’s financial backing. At the moment local residents are having difficulty not only transferring money: there is a lack of fuel and food, its banking system is hardly in operation.
Ales Barazenka, Siarhei Kavaliou, Belsat TV, Simferopol
