Putin: Fourth stage of Crimea power bridge to be launched early May

Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Friday that the fourth stage of an electricity connection, also known as power bridge, is to go into operation early in May, Tass reports.

"Power engineers had planned to commission a new stage of the electricity line into Crimea ahead of schedule. But the ships had to interrupt their work for several days because of the bad weather in the straits," Putin said at a meeting with members of the Council of Lawmakers set up under the Russian Federal Assembly (parliament).

"But all this work will be completed. I believe the fourth stage is going to be launched in the next few days. We are going to finish everything early in May," the Russian president stressed.