SIMFEROPOL, March 18. /TASS/. Projects that at first seemed fantastic have been implemented in Crimea in the ten years since the peninsula re-joined Russia, Crimean State Council Chairman Vladimir Konstantinov said in an interview with TASS.

After the "Euromaidan" coup in Ukraine in February 2014, the authorities of the Republic of Crimea and the City of Sevastopol held a referendum on the issue of re-unification with Russia, in which 96.7% and 95.6% of voters, respectively, chose to join the Russian Federation. Russian President Vladimir Putin signed the relevant re-unification treaties on March 18, 2014.

"Over the past years, projects have been implemented in Crimea that I, as an official with 30 years of experience, thought were impossible. Now, we believe that anything is possible. Ten years of life showed that the most fantastic ideas have been implemented in Crimea. Changes have come to every village. Wherever you go you will find symbols of the Russian Crimea," Konstantinov said.

He called resolving all manner of infrastructure-related problems one of the most important tasks that the Crimean authorities are facing, adding that several generations of the region’s inhabitants have dreamed of such improvements. "We are grateful to Russia, to President Putin for what is being done for Crimea, but we are trying to build a Crimea that would be able to earn its own keep. The potential for this is being created now," he noted.

The Crimean Bridge, an energy bridge, a new airport in Simferopol, two heat and power stations, engineering structures for supplying water to eastern Crimea and the Tavrida Highway have all been built as part of the program for social and economic development of Crimea and Sevastopol adopted in 2014. The program has been extended until 2027 at Putin’s instructions.