Russian President Vladimir Putin has given start to new gas supplies to Crimea from continental Russia on Tuesday, the President’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.
The launch of the pipeline from the Krasnodar region to Crimea will ensure steady gas delivery for all types of consumers on the peninsula, TASS reports.
Putin participated in the ceremony via videoconference. The head of Crimea Sergey Aksenov, the acting governor of Sevastopol Dmitry Ovsyannikov and the general director of Chernomorneftegaz Igor Shabanov also took part in the ceremony in the mode of a videoconference.
The pipeline’s total length is 358.7 km, including a two line crossing over Lake Tuzla and the Kerch Strait, as well as a gas pipeline branch to Simferopol which is 27.3 km long.
Senior Lecturer of the Department of Economics and Finance at the Faculty of Economics and Social Sciences of RANEPA, Boris Pivovar, speaking to Vestnik Kavkaza, noted that the opening of the regular gas supply to Crimea would directly affect the development of the peninsula. "Different manufacturing plants will be restarted due to regular gas supplies. And the logistic enterprises and other industries of Krasnodar will receive a new impetus," he said.
Indirectly, it will stimulate the development of the tourism industry in Crimea. "The cost of ownership of tourist facilities may be reduced due to the fact that the gas will be cheaper. Therefore, tourist costs will be cheaper in the long run," Boris Pivovar noted.
According to the expert, the provision of Crimea with essential resources should be followed by work in the legislative field. "Crimean business must start to work, according to the common rules for the whole of Russia. They also need to run the bridge, work out other logistics channels of the goods and tourists delivery," the senior Lecturer of the Department of Economics and Finance at the Faculty of Economics and Social Sciences of RANEPA concluded.
