MOSCOW, April 16, /ITAR-TASS/. Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said on Wednesday that Russia would analyze why Ukraine had reduced water supplies to Crimea to understand whether the absence of a contract or “peanut politics” was the true reason.
“Our brothers have kept saying the problem is in the absence of a contract. We will see whether legal problems are the true reason or whether we are dealing with peanut politics,” Medvedev said at a meeting with regional branches of the United Russia party in the Crimean Federal District.
Earlier this week, Crimea’s First Vice-Premier Rustam Temirgaliyev said the government in Kiev had reduced water supply to Crimea on the North Crimean canal from 50 cubic meters per second to 16 cubic meters per second but the Crimean government had found a technical solution preventing Kiev from cutting off all water.
Temirgaliyev said Ukraine’s Acting Deputy Head of the Presidential Administration Andrei Senchenko was behind issuing a direct order to cut off water supplies to the peninsula.
Temporary water shortages have caused minor irrigation problems in Crimea’s Saki district because early sorts of ground vegetables require special watering. But the Crimean authorities have found resources for irrigation.
“All these officials in Kiev should seriously moot over what they are doing by cutting off water supplies on the North Crimean canal. Such actions are causing our bewilderment, to put it mildly. I believe that everything will get back to normal, and these people will be brought to responsibility for issuing criminal orders, including to Ukraine’s Committee for Water Management,” Crimea’s first vice-premier said.
Temirgaliyev flatly denied allegations of the illegitimate authorities in Kiev who claimed Crimea had not paid for its water. He said Crimea had met Ukraine’s requirement and handed over all the necessary documents for concluding a water supply contract to Ukraine’s Kherson region last Saturday.
“We said we were ready to pay a price to be set by inadequate Kiev officials. But again, they found some formal reasons by saying we had sent them the wrong documents,” Temirgaliyev explained.
North Crimean Canal is a land improvement canal for irrigation and watering of Kherson Oblast in southern Ukraine and Crimea. It was built in 1961-1971 and has multiple branches.
The canal starts from the Kakhovka Reservoir stretches out to the city of Kerch on the east coast of Crimea.