After joining the Russian Federation Crimea is facing several challenges, including those concerning gas supplies and integration into Russia's financial system.
According to Ivan Grachyov, the Chairman of the State Duma Committee for the Energy Industry, right now the amount of gas produced constitutes 1.7 billion cubic metres. "If the energy system is reconstructed, it will need around 2 billion cubic metres of gas. It is not hard to produce 2 billion cubic metres in the region. I believe it will be done. In fact they were going to the increase the amount of gas produced, so that it increases to 4 billion cubic metres. This means that they would be able to export gas. I hope this dream will come true. The problem of electricity supply is being solved. As far as I know, Ukraine is ready to continue providing electricity to the region. If not, private investment will be needed. The number of those who would like to take part in such a programme is great. Several power stations will be needed in different parts of the region. I think that even without Ukrainian help this problem will be solved within a year," Grachyov says.
Alexander Kudrin, the head of the Strategic Energy Research Department of the Analysis Centre of the Russian Government, notes that Crimea consumes around 1.7 billion cubic metres of gas. The amount of gas produced in the region is almost the same, the expert underlines. "We believe that in future gas supplies to the region will be increased. Right now the gas supply satisfies around 70 percent of the demand. The former authorities paid particular attention to this issue. Our aim is to provide full gas supply to Crimea. However, as the head of Gazprom Mezhregiongaz, Kirill Seleznyov said, the gas supply to the region is not on the company's agenda. There is no easy way to provide gas to the region. There are some Gazprom-sponsored programmes, some investment projects of other state-run monopolies, but they cannot work immediately. Moreover, the region's demand may increase due to the new scheme of energy supply drafted by the ministry of energy. A number of thermoelectric power stations are expected to be built in the region, they will be using gas and thus gas deliveries will have to be increased. In such a case demand may increase by 1 to 1.5 billion cubic metres and constitute 3 million cubic metres or maybe more. The production of gas was also expected to reach 3 billion cubic metres in 2015. This is realistic. However, it would be unwise to hope that local production will secure the necessary gas supply. In addition to that, the conflict over property rights to gas deposits in the Black Sea may become more vehement. That is why the best way out is to build a new gas pipeline from Krasnodar Territory, which would be able to deliver 2 billion cubic metres of gas per year. This project seems quite sane," he says.
The problem of Crimea's integration into Russia concerns the banking sphere as well. Mikhail Khazin, the President of the Neokon consulting company, notes that the problem is that the Crimean infrastructure was a Ukrainian one. "I would not say that it was a bad one. However, because Ukraine opposes the region's transition to Russia this infrastructure was totally ruined," he says. "Ukrainian banks are no longer allowed to operate in Crimea. At the same time, Russian banks don't want to work there since they are afraid of possible international sanctions. That is why only small Russian banks have entered the Crimean market. We have no data concerning loans, no data whatsoever. Ukrainian banks are ready to negotiate, but the Ukrainian authorities prohibit any negotiations. This is why there are a lot of technical problems. Of course these problems will be solved sooner or later, but people have to continue their everyday activities. It is a bit problematic at the moment. The same is true for payment systems. There are a lot of technical problems. They all should be solved. We are trying to solve them, but this process may be rather long."
