JRL NEWSWATCH: “Crimea could become an expensive liability for Putin” – Atlantic Council/ Andreas Umland

“… [A]s Crimea becomes more of a burden on the Russian state budget, it will increasingly be perceived as an expensive political liability. … Putin’s comparison between the reunification of Germany and Russia’s annexation of Crimea was obviously misleading. … Considerable amounts of Russian budget money have already been poured into Crimea[,] [t]he largest single expense … the so-called Crimean Bridge across the Kerch Strait …. The Russian economy was already … sluggish prior to … the coronavirus crisis and … [declining] global energy prices. Many now expect the damage to be severe. As government resources grow scarcer and more Russians are told that they must do without state support, criticism of the largess bestowed upon Crimea will inevitably become more vocal. … [T]he ailing Russian economy … looks ill-equipped to accommodate the rising costs of the Crimean annexation …. [and] what was once Putin’s crowning glory may come to be seen primarily as an unwelcome drain on government funds. Eventually, the final vestiges of the political capital gained by the annexation could evaporate ….”

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