SIMFEROPOL, March 04, (ITAR-TASS). The capital of Crimea gradually comes back to normal and its residents resume their habitual way of life. Hardly anything in the streets of the city reminds one of the recent events and political standoff with Kiev.
Government institutions, social and cultural organizations, restaurants, bars, stores and the urban transport work as usual. Energy and water are supplied in full volume. Young couples and women pushing prams walk in the streets; the city park is bustling with activity; there are many children around.
“We are tired of the events of the recent days. We want to live our usual calm life,” residents of Simferopol say.
“We are now sure of the morrow. The city is bustling; people resumed their usual life. All is well with us,” a woman resident of the city told Itar-Tass.
Prime Minister of the republic Sergei Aksyonov assured people on Tuesday that “all is calm” in Crimea and that security of the autonomous republic is fully ensured by self-defence forces. “The Crimean people are all for law and order across the territory of the autonomous republic,” he said, adding that all checkpoints are under control of berkut forces and self-defence of Crimea. The Crimean authorities coordinate their actions with Sevastopol; there is no internal confrontation in the republic.
Aksyonov said Crimean people so far are not going either to ask Russia for assistance or try to come to terms with Kiev. The government of the autonomous republic, for a start, aims to put things in order, cope with financial affairs, establish its own defence ministry and prepare the legal base to hold a popular referendum to decide the destiny of Crimea.
In the opinion of local residents the new authorities of the autonomous republic succeeded in introducing order in a certain measure. “The Ukrainian channels do not present the situation here quite correctly,” was the complaint of Nikolai, an engineer, one of the people taking a walk in the park. “Nobody tried to capture us; it is calm in the city; people are unconcerned,” a woman he was accompanying joined in. “We understand everything that happens, and that the measures taken were necessary, while the Ukrainian TV presents things with a bias, asserting that people armed with submachine-guns are around. Show me these people,” she said. Crimean people do not trust what the Ukrainian press writes and presents and watch mostly the Russian television, she said.
The railway terminal and the airport in Simferopol also function normally. Russian airlines operate flights from Moscow’s Sheremetyevo and Domodedovo airports. There are three flights a day to Moscow and back to Simferopol. Flights to Kiev and back are also made on schedule. Direct flights to Islanbul are made on time, too.
According to local residents, prices of food products remain constant. Shops and supermarkets offer a broad range of products, clothes, cosmetics, detergents, etc.. Cashiers say there is no panic buying of necessities and non-perishable foods.