Life is difficult for Crimean businessmen, but they do not regret moving to Russia - RBC survey
Moscow - Simferopol, March 16 (PolitNavigator, Mikhail Stamm) - Crimean entrepreneurs interviewed RBC, experience difficulties, but do not complain about fate. “The main thing is that we don’t have a war,” they say, assessing the results of the past year.
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Not everything is smooth in Russia, but in Ukraine it’s even worse - this idea was repeated by almost all RBC’s interlocutors in Crimea. “Not everything is going smoothly” in the 2014 figures for the peninsula looks like this: industry - almost minus 10%, retail turnover - minus 8%, construction - 44,5% of the 2013 level.
“We have ceased to be Ukraine, but we have not become Russia either, some kind of “Nedorossia,” grins one of the Crimean entrepreneurs. But those who are positive find solutions to all problems. There is almost no railway communication with Ukraine, and the ferries at the Kerch crossing cannot cope with the flow of traffic? “The bridge will be built soon, but on business we fly anywhere through Moscow.” Visa and Mastercard not working? — We’re used to walking around with stacks of bills. Have Ukrainian clients left? — But the Russians appeared: 146 million people versus 43 million. Due to supply problems, there are fewer products in stores? — Well, there used to be ten types of kefir in the store, but now two are normal.
Under international sanctions, public companies do not officially operate in Crimea. But it's official. MTS, VimpelCom and Megafon continue to publicly disavow Crimean business, although they have lowered tariffs for local calls almost to the level of off-network roaming. “I have two SIM cards, one Russian - MTS, the other - Crimean Win, I receive the same messages from both,” the entrepreneur from Simferopol grins.
It's more complicated with banks. “In Ukraine, mortgages, car loans, and consumer loans were available in almost every bank, but now it’s as if we have returned 20 years ago,” the owner of a trading company is indignant. “What kind of consumer demand can we even talk about?”
“It’s easier to fly into space than to get a loan in Crimea now,” says Tatyana Pikalova. “Banks are formally ready to lend, but there are no real options.” Co-owner of the Satera wine company Igor Samsonov describes the situation this way: “We come to the bank and they ask us for data on the company’s revenue for the last three years. Well, I can give them in hryvnias, but they need rubles!” Crimean entrepreneurs interviewed by RBC are negotiating loans at 15–25% per annum, but no one has received a loan yet.
Russian retail chains have not yet arrived on the peninsula. “Half-empty shelves, almost no visitors, bananas - 135 rubles. per kilogram, conference pears - 199 rubles, 50-gram jar of black caviar - 2969,4 rubles. “The Furshet supermarket in Simferopol makes a depressing impression,” writes RBC. – “Auchan” and Metro import all goods via ferry from mainland Russia. But storms often occur in the Kerch Strait, especially in winter, so the shelves are either thick or empty.
But, firstly, more than half of the products in Crimea are still sold in markets, and trade in markets is still brisk. And secondly, in the supermarket across the street from Furshet the assortment is wider than in Moscow. The secret of abundance is that there is a large assortment of local goods, and the supermarket quickly reoriented itself to working with Russian assortment
Bringing a truck from Moscow to Kuban costs 35-40 thousand rubles, from Kuban to Crimea - 60 thousand rubles. Due to the higher cost of Russian goods and their delivery, retail food prices in Crimea jumped by 53,2% (December 2014 to December 2013, Crimea Statistics). Fruit prices rose by 82,9%, meat by 64%, bread by 34,2%. The average salary in Crimea, based on Crimean statistics data and RBC calculations, last year increased by 52,6% to 17,2 thousand rubles.
The resort industry has lost more than a third of its customers in a year. “It was the worst year in my memory,” says the director of a small sanatorium located near Yevpatoria. “Sometimes there was silence in the corridors, and I couldn’t believe that I was at work, and outside the window it was the beginning of summer.” Several more managers of boarding houses and sanatoriums who came to Yalta for a specialized exhibition told RBC about a serious drop in the number of guests.
Some tourists were replaced by business travelers from the mainland. “It’s no secret that sanatoriums and boarding houses, especially those that have been nationalized, are filled with pensioners, disabled people and children,” fumes a resident of Sudak. “It was harder for private owners, but for residents, those who serve the sector, it was a total disaster: the wallets of benefit recipients, of course, were not full.”
A year ago, there were many skeptics among local residents, Tatyana Pikalova, director of the Crimean retail chain Yabloko, shares her observations. “But then all these events began in the southeast of Ukraine, and we realized that it was very good for us that we became part of Russia,” she continues. — Of course, there are now many difficulties of the transition period, but they are all surmountable. Thank you that there is no war."
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