Press release, 19.03.2014

The costs of raising salaries and pensions in Crimea, as well as infrastructure development against the background of devaluation of the rouble will significantly affect Russia’s economy, said Grigory Yavlinsky. However, the main problem is not the accession of Crimea is not the economics.

Grigory Yavlinsky answered journalists’ questions about Crimea during a briefing in the Legislative Assembly of St. Petersburg. According to the lead of the YABLOKO faction, an average income of a Russian resident amounts to 39,000 Russian roubles and a minimum average income in subsidized regions ranges between 20,000 – 30,000 roubles. Meanwhile an average wage in Crimea amounts to 11,000 roubles and a pension to 5,000 roubles. Yavlinsky also noted that these indicators will be inevitably raise to the Russian average. He also noted that the Crimean population totals about 2 million people, including 200,000 people working in the public sector and 600,000 pensioners.

The second economic problem is the infrastructure. “It will be necessary to rebuild the airport in Simferopol, moreover, to build a bridge across the Kerch Strait. But after the construction of the bridge will have to make roads so that to actually get to the peninsula. Also the highway M-4 Don, which is already overloaded, runs towards Crimea, and it will need to be broadened. These are huge expenditures,” Yavlinsky said. He assessed the required investment at several trillion roubles.

The leader of the YABLOKO faction also stressed that the Russian authorities would have to make these costs in the situation of the ongoing devaluation of the rouble, “The rise in prices for imported products has amounted to about 20% in the recent years, and the cost of products that use imported components, has increased by 15 – 16 per cent already”.

The consequences of all this will take effect in the Russian Federation in a short term, he noted.

According to Yavlinsky, the main problem was that instead of moving towards making Russia a country with well-functioning laws and independent court, Russia took a step towards a “sword law”. “It is unacceptable for us to be in the long term a country with a zero reputation, a country signing treaties and then demonstratively not complying with them,” he said. According to Yavlinsky, the consequences of these actions will not be immediate, but will develop gradually.