MOSCOW, March 19. /ITAR-TASS/. The payment of pensions and salaries to budget sector workers were priority tasks for Crimea and Sevastopol after their accession to the Russian Federation, while problems of energy and water supply were also important tasks, Sevastopol Mayor Aleksei Chalyi said after the signing of a new agreement on cooperation with Moscow.
He said switching over telephones and issuing new passports were “secondary problems”. As for the priority task of ensuring the payment of pensions and salaries, it was being solved “in an emergency mode” as it was difficult to “predict Kiev’s behavior in that respect,” the mayor said.
He said the city authorities were concerned about energy security, as well as the problem of water supply and safety of people.
Meanwhile, the city mayor said the situation was “normal, stable” at the moment. However, Kiev had a technical possibility to cut electricity and water supply to the city. “Both will have unpleasant consequences for the other side as well, as it is a shared network,” he explained. “When blocking the North-Crimean channel, one must understand what to do with the water what will remain there,” he said.
“Neither of the sides is economically interested in such moves, but unfortunately the leadership in Kiev is sometimes guided not by common sense, but by certain emotions,” the mayor said, noting that in case of emergency the city could switch over to emergency power supply.
In reply to reporters’ queries, Chalyi said re-election of the city authorities was not the matter of primary importance either.
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