Photo: pvkgb.ru
One and a half trillion rubles is the approximate damage that Ukraine caused to the Crimea from 1991 to 2014, when the peninsula was the part of the country. The figures has been announced by the representatives of the special working group of the State Duma of Russia, established on March 20 at the suggestion of the chairman of the lower chamber of Parliament Vyacheslav Volodin. The authors of the document claimed that the actions of the Ukrainian authorities devastated Crimean infrastructure, brought to agriculture to decline and virtually destroyed industry on the peninsula, Parlamentskaya Gazeta reports.
The calculation of the damage caused to the Crimea became the hot topic in Russia and abroad in the middle of March, after the corresponding statement of Volodin. Russkiy mir reported that the Crimean authorities estimated the damage in "hundreds of billions of rubles." However, the reality surpassed expectations, although the work is still underway. In addition to the destruction of the infrastructure and industry of the Crimea, the Ukrainian authorities are blamed for neglecting the problems of health care and insufficient funding. Underpayments will be calculated in comparison with other regions of Ukraine, which, having a similar population, in those years received much more funds from the federal budget.
The head of the working group, the Deputy Speaker of the State Duma Ivan Melnikov, stated that the final figures would have nothing to do with populism. A specific methodology is used in the calculations, and each indicator will have documentary evidence. Experts and scientists are involved in the work. In May, the deputies intend to submit final calculations of the economic losses of the Crimea.
The State Duma does not exclude that the group’s work can continue after the publication, its members can be engaged in calculating the damage caused by Ukraine after the Crimea became part of Russia.
Russkiy mir
