Cold winter in Yalta
In November, 2015, two pylons of an electric power line leading from Ukraine to Crimea were destroyed, cutting off the electricity supplies to Crimea and leaving about two million residents partially or completely without power.
Russian sources claim that the pylons were blown up by radicals from the Ukrainian extreme nationalist group Right Sector and by representatives of Crimean Tatar nationalist organizations. They also assert that these Ukrainian and Tatar groups were continuously blocking repairmen’s attempts to restore the power line. Crimean Tatar activists suggested that the pylons were blown down by the wind.
By the end of December the pylons were fixed but nevertheless the delivery of electricity to Crimea was not restored. On December 31, 2015, the contracts for the supply of electricity from Ukraine to Crimea, concluded a year ago, had expired. New contracts were not made. Only 30% of Crimea’s electricity is generated locally, the rest comes from Ukraine. In order to produce the energy, Ukraine needs coal, which had been supplied by Russia.
Latest correspondences from Yalta, the biggest resort city of Crimea, claim that the city never in its history has seen a catastrophe of such scale, and the most terrible ordeals are still ahead, because now Yalta experiences a rarely severe winter. The temperature now is -10 C, for Yalta; it is very, very cold. The temperature in the apartments is from -1 C degree to +5 C. Yalta residents are hunting for firewood, cutting down forests around city. Lines of vans and cars with trailers carrying people armed with chainsaws are seen on all the roads.
A Bengal tiger cub has died in Yalta Zoo as the animals there suffered from cold caused by a power outage.
Bengal tiger cub
There is a shortage of gasoline and diesel fuel.
City transportation practically ceased to exist: there are no busses and trolleybuses; taxis prices are skyrocketing.
In November Ukraine started a blockade of the Crimea and there are no more Ukrainian products and goods in Yalta.
Windows and balconies are covered with shopping bags; it is a new kind of refrigerator, ones that don’t need electric power.
Restaurants, bars and cafes are closed; hotels are empty. Estimated damage caused by Crimea blackout is over $4.7 million.
Garbage litters the whole of Yalta, such a mess has probably has not been seen in Yalta in its entire history.
Nobody believes that the situation will improve by the summer and that vacationers would come to the city. It means that the citizens will have no means to survive.
On the Christmas Eve, which Russians celebrate on January 7, mass prayers “for the preservation and development of the Crimean resorts and successful holding of the holiday season” took place in all the churches of the Crimean peninsula.
In late December, Russian researchers conducted a poll among Crimean residents asking them if they supported signing a contract on energy deliveries with Kiev. Over 93% of respondents said that they were against entering such contract and 94% said they were ready to put up with minor disruptions in electricity while Russia works to provide 100% power supply to Crimea in the coming months.
Russia had to speed up the execution of its plan to build a power transmission line from the Russian mainland directly to the Crimean Peninsula. In mid-December President Vladimir Putin personally switched on the second of two power lines to complete the first energy bridge from Russia to Crimea.
Nevertheless today in mid January, even according to the official Russian media, Crimea still has only about 70% of needed electric power.
The Internet and Ukrainian sources present much more negative picture.
Crimean blogger Irina Ivanova writes: “Don’t believe anyone who would tell you that ‘even if stones would fall from the sky, we still would love Putin!’ The citizens of Yalta by now have cursed Putin hundreds of times.”
Even Sergey Aksenov, appointed by the Kremlin to head of the Crimean government, is not happy with the situation. He told the press that the federal budget “had not transferred this year even a penny for the implementation of the federal target program ‘Socio-economic development of Crimea.’”
The official answer by Putin’s press representative Dmitry Peskov was: “In any case, the current problems in the daily work between the regional authorities and the federal government shouldn’t be presented as some crises. It would probably be incorrect. It is much better to focus specifically on the resolution of these problems and on a consistent explanation of its position in due course”.
But an “explanation of the position” of the Putin’s government had not followed. Instead there followed a new action of the propaganda of Russian ruling of Crimea.
The Central Bank of Russia issued a commemorative 100 ruble banknote dedicated to Crimea. The front of the note features a Crimean landmark called the Swallow’s Nest Castle.
