The political scientist explained why Medvedev is dissatisfied with the situation in Crimea and Sevastopol
Yesterday’s meeting with the participation of Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev, where it was pointed out that the funds allocated by Moscow for the development of Crimea and, in particular, Sevastopol, are being absorbed extremely low, is evidence of the federal center’s dissatisfaction with the situation on the peninsula.
Russian political scientist Boris Mezhuev told PolitNavigator about this, noting that Moscow is particularly wary of the situation in Sevastopol, where only 5% of the funds allocated for 2018 under the Federal Target Program have been spent.
“Infrastructure projects were not well implemented, jobs were not particularly created, the socio-economic situation in the city was, frankly speaking, not in the best position, although some noted external improvements in the quality of road construction, but houses were not being reconstructed,” the expert noted.
“The regions are in a situation where they hardly fit into Russian realities. Both situations – the Crimean and Sevastopol – differ from the all-Russian one. There is clearly a leadership in Crimea that claims a special status, a special position, more powerful. The feds are unhappy with this, and in the government there are those people for whom the regalia of the hero of the Russian Spring, Aksenov, is not a sacred cow. But in Sevastopol the situation is completely different - there are ongoing conflicts and a very weak positioning of the governor, who has failed to build relationships with literally anyone, including Crimea. Therefore, there is really a big question here about fitting this subject of the federation into the all-Russian context; some special approach is needed here, which has not yet been found,” stated Mezhuev.
According to him, the situation in Sevastopol is complicated by the conflict that Governor Dmitry Ovsyannikov started against the deputies of the legislative assembly.
“It is clear that the governor is referring to the legislative assembly, to problems with the adoption of the budget, but it seems to me that this is just an excuse. It seems to me that the governor artificially created a crisis with the legislative assembly, began to demonstratively humiliate it, and this was especially evident in budgetary issues... This is not the reason, but it became an excuse on the governor’s side for why certain federal programs are not being implemented,” said Boris Mezhuev.
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