Crimeans choose Russia once again

More than 90% of Crimean residents and Sevastopol in a survey conducted by VTsIOM were against the signing of an intergovernmental agreement with Ukraine on the supply of electricity to the peninsula where these regions were identified as Ukrainian, general director of the center Valery Fedorov said.

Earlier, Russian President Vladimir Putin instructed to carry out this sociological research to ascertain the viewpoint of Crimean people on this issue before making a decision on acceptance, or rejection of the proposed draft document by Kiev.

"6.2% residents of the Republic of Crimea and Sevastopol supported the conclusion of such a contract. 93.1% of residents didn’t support the conclusion of the contract. According to which Crimea and Sevastopol would be a part of Ukraine,’’ Tass cites Fedorov as saying.

He added that 94% of respondents in Crimea and Sevastopol expressed their readiness for temporary difficulties associated with minor disruptions of energy supply in the next 3-4 months in the case of failure to conclude the agreement. Only 5.4% stated their unwillingness to do this.

2,500 people participated in the survey in Crimea and about 500 people in Sevastopol. The mistake does not exceed 4.5%.

The head of Crimea Sergey Aksenov has already commented on these results and thanked the Crimeans "for their patience, endurance and patriotism."

''It is time for Kiev to stop dancing on rakes and forget about the return of Crimea to Ukraine. They have completely lost the Crimean market and turn Crimean people against Ukraine,’’ he said.

According to the governor of Sevastopol Sergey Menyailo, "the survey conducted by VTsIOM on behalf of Russian President Vladimir Putin showed the unanimous opinion of the Sevastopol and Crimean people on the issue of consent to the conditions of supply of electric power from Ukraine. No to a blackmail,’’ RIA Novosti cites him as saying.

Menyailo stressed that the Hero City confirmed its choice made in 2014 during the referendum. 

The head of the Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov assumed that after familiarization with the results of the survey, Vladimir Putin will refuse to conclude such an agreement.