MOSCOW, January 1. /TASS/. More than 90% of Crimea’s residents have said they oppose the electricity supplies on Ukraine’s conditions, if the energy contract indicates that Crimea and Sevastopol are part of Ukraine, Director-General of the Russian Public Opinion Research Center (VTsIOM) Valery Fyodorov said.
The terms of electricity supplies to Crimea and Sevastopol proposed by Ukraine became the reason for Russian President Vladimir Putin to give instructions to conduct a telephone survey of residents of the Black Sea peninsula by VTsIOM.
"In the Republic of Crimea, 6.2% expressed support for signing such a contract, while 93.1% did not support the conclusion of the contract, under which Crimea and Sevastopol would be part of Ukraine," Fyodorov said.
He also said that 94% of those polled in Sevastopol and Crimea said they are ready for temporary difficulties connected with insignificant problems with energy supply over the next 3-4 months should such a contract not be signed. A mere 5.4% said they are not ready for such difficulties.
About 3,000 people have been surveyed, "2,500 people in Crimea and about 500 people in Sevastopol," he added. According to Fyodorov, the margin of error does not exceed 4.5%.
Under the standard scheme, electricity from Ukraine to Crimea had been supplied on four power transmission lines through Ukraine’s Kherson Region.
Results of poll on supplies of Ukrainian energy to Crimea reported to Putin
The results of a poll by the Russian Public Opinion Research Center (VTsIOM) on Crimean’ attitude toward an energy supply contract suggested by Ukraine have been reported to Russian President Vladimir Putin, VTsIOM Director-General Valery Fyodorov said.
"The results have certainly been passed to the president," Fyodorov said.
The poll’s results were published today.
The terms of electricity supplies to Crimea and Sevastopol proposed by Ukraine became the reason for Putin to give instructions to conduct a telephone survey of residents of the Black Sea peninsula by VTsIOM.
"In the Republic of Crimea, 6.2% expressed support for signing such a contract, while 93.1% did not support the conclusion of the contract, under which Crimea and Sevastopol would be part of Ukraine," Fyodorov said earlier.
He also said that 94% of those polled in Sevastopol and Crimea said they are ready for temporary difficulties connected with insignificant problems with energy supply over the next 3-4 months should such a contract not be signed. A mere 5.4% said they are not ready for such difficulties.
About 3,000 people have been surveyed, "2,500 people in Crimea and about 500 people in Sevastopol," he added. According to Fyodorov, the margin of error does not exceed 4.5%.
Under the standard scheme, electricity from Ukraine to Crimea had been supplied on four power transmission lines through Ukraine’s Kherson Region.
Energy crisis in Crimea
Crimea was left without power overnight to November 22 after unknown assailants blew up electricity pylons in Ukraine’s Kherson Region. An energy saving regime was imposed on the peninsula, with many enterprises suspending their activity; rolling blackouts started in all inhabited localities.
The situation stabilized after the launch on December 2 of the first thread of the "energy bridge" from Russia’s southern Krasnodar Territory, which gave the peninsula an additional 250 MW of electric power. The commissioning of the second thread of the "energy bridge" on December 15 increased its power to 400 MW.
Another two threads are to be commissioned in spring, which will make it possible to make Crimea independent of Ukrainian electric energy. Besides, the construction of two basic thermal electric power plants with the power of 940 MW started.
Previously, one of the organizers of the blockade of Crimea Mustafa Dzhemilev said that the extension of the contract on the electric power supply to the peninsula from Ukraine was possible, if Crimea in the documents is named not the Crimean Federal District, but the Autonomous Republic of Crimea.
Crimea’s reunification with Russia
The Republic of Crimea and Sevastopol, a city with a special status on the Crimean Peninsula, where most residents are Russians, refused to recognize the legitimacy of authorities brought to power amid riots during a coup in Ukraine in February 2014.
Crimea and Sevastopol adopted declarations of independence on March 11, 2014. They held a referendum on March 16, 2014, in which 96.77% of Crimeans and 95.6% of Sevastopol voters chose to secede from Ukraine and join the Russian Federation. Russian President Vladimir Putin signed the reunification deals March 18, 2014.
Despite Moscow’s repeated statements that the Crimean referendum on secession from Ukraine was in line with the international law and the UN Charter and in conformity with the precedent set by Kosovo’s secession from Serbia in 2008, the West and Kiev have refused to recognize the legality of Crimea’s reunification with Russia.
Crimea had joined the Russian Empire in 1783, when it was conquered by Russian Empress Catherine the Great.
In the Soviet Union, Crimea used to be part of Russia until 1954, when Nikita Khrushchev, the first secretary of the USSR’s Communist Party, transferred it to Ukraine's jurisdiction as a gift.
With the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, Crimea became part of newly independent Ukraine and remained in that capacity until March 2014, when it reunified with Russia after some 60 years as part of Ukraine.
According to the Crimean and Ukrainian statistics bodies, as of early 2014, Crimea had a population of 1,959,000 people; Sevastopol has a population of 384,000 people.
Work to integrate the Crimean Peninsula into Russia’s economic, financial, credit, legal, state power, military conscription and infrastructure systems has been actively underway since Crimea acceded to the Russian Federation.