Yuriy Radkovets
I would like to draw attention to the question (well-advertised by Russia) about the connection of the Crimea to the Russian power line at the end of this year (according to Russia's projects). First of all, we are talking about a special hard cable that should be laid on the Black Sea bottom. As usual, it turned out, that it is another Kremlin's bluff — or, to be exact, another lie of the Russian president’s environment.
According to official data of the website of the RF Ministry of Energy, this cable, at best, will be laid across the Kerch Strait by the end of summer next year; and the power distribution system from it (if they do manage to lay it to the coast of the Crimea) is planned to be mounted by the end of 2017. Besides, a transmission line has to be built (ETL “Rostov-Taman”, 500 kV) on the Russian shore to supply electricity power to the Crimean Peninsula. To complete the construction of the 500 km long transmission line is expected before the end of 2020.
As for the “famous” Kerch bridge, the Russian contractors have embezzled more than 1.3 billion rubles allocated for the projecting and construction of a “technical bridge”, which has to go along the main bridge and to ensure its construction. That is why the projecting and construction activities (of the main Kerch bridge) are suspended indefinitely...
Besides, as it has become known, the Chinese side has also refused to participate in financing the construction of the main Kerch bridge, having learnt by bitter experience of losing private investments (and also because of their banal embezzlement!) in projecting of this very bridge in 2014. As a result, today the Chinese government has unsolved problems both with its private investors, and with the Russian side (read — S. Aksyonov's “government” in the Crimea).
Now the recent developments with the resignation of the former head of “Russian Railways” V. Yakunin, the Russian oligarch G. Timchenko's refusal to construct the Kerch bridge, as well as the transfer of functions of the main investor in projecting and construction of the bridge to the Russian oligarch A. Rotenberg are becoming clear. By the way, all the above-mentioned people are from V. Putin's close circle.
So, today V. Putin has no money, ETLs, bridges, or cable for the Crimea and therefore there is no so-called “Kerch energy bridge” for it either.
