For Ukraine, the EU and the USA, the annexation of Crimea by Russia is a blatant breach of international law. The Kremlin, on the other hand, sees the incorporation of the Black Sea peninsula simply as a "homecoming". This is progressing steadily - in future also by train.
Vladimir Putin has opened rail traffic on the bridge that connects the Russian Taman peninsula with the city of Kerch in Crimea. Ukraine stopped it after the annexation. In future, the peninsula can be reached again by train.
Video: Putin opens controversial Crimean bridge
REUTERS
It was six years ago that Russia annexed the peninsula, which is part of Ukraine under international law. Since then, Moscow has been pushing ahead with the integration of the territory.
19 kilometers long, more than three billion euros expensive
There is the mega structure in the Kerch Strait. 19 kilometers long, estimated cost: the equivalent of around 3.3 billion euros. The bridge was built by the Strojgasmontasch group. This belongs to the oligarch Arkadij Rotenberg, a childhood friend and former judo training partner of the Russian president. The bridge had already been opened to motor traffic last spring. Violent international protests accompanied the construction:
- The U.S. State Department criticized that this was done without the approval of the Ukrainian government.
- The British government spoke of "another example of Russia's dangerous behavior".
- The then Ukrainian government sued.
Volodymyr Selenskyj, President of Ukraine since May, also pledged to bring Crimea back. But this goal seems increasingly unrealistic. The Kremlin creates facts that continue to drive the integration of the peninsula into the Russian Federation.
The opening of the Crimean bridge to rail traffic is just the latest example. This should not only bring significantly more tourists to the peninsula than before, but also improve goods traffic. Because from 2020 freight trains should also roll over the bridge. Moscow is getting closer to the residents - and Kiev is getting farther away.
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Crimea is not the only scene of the conflict between the two countries, on which Putin is putting his Ukrainian counterparts under pressure with concrete individual steps: Selenskyj was not sworn in when Putin announced at the end of April that he would issue Russian passports in the Donbass.
A decree issued by the Russian head of state has since then allowed residents of the areas in eastern Ukraine occupied by fighters who are loyal to Moscow to obtain Russian citizenship in an urgent process.
In July, days before the general election in Ukraine, Putin then extended the decree: the passport offer is now aimed at all Ukrainians who were registered in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions at the beginning of the war in 2014 - even if they live in Ukrainian-controlled areas ,
Power politics with passports
Putin and Selenskyj recently met Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Emmanuel Macron for the first so-called Normandy meeting in three years. (Read more about this here)
Among other things, the two agreed to continue the so-called troop detachment and talked about future local elections in the separatist areas. Further individual steps are also planned for the coming weeks and months, which should contribute to resolving the conflict.
Charles Platiau / AFP
Selenskyj (from left), Merkel, Macron and Putin: In early December, the first Normandy meeting in three years took place in Paris
But with passports, many fear not only in Ukraine, Putin is not only further undermining the sovereignty of the neighboring country. For the future, he also said that he had military options that could go beyond Moscow's current engagement in the conflict areas.
The Kremlin had already founded its military operation in Georgia in 2008 by the fact that many people with Russian passports lived there. Moscow had distributed these in the breakaway Georgian regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia in previous years.
What are the consequences of Nord Stream 2 for the conflict?
However, an agreement has now been reached on another topic that Putin and Selenskyj discussed in Paris: gas. The energy ministers of the two countries recently agreed a new transit contract in Berlin. This defines the conditions under which Ukraine sends Russian gas to Europe. The previous agreement expires at the end of the year. The new agreement will run for five years.
Despite the new treaty, Ukraine, which relies on billions of dollars in transit fees, sees its position as an important transit country at risk in the medium term. The reason for this is Nord Stream 2. Russia wants to deliver natural gas directly to Germany via the controversial Baltic Sea pipeline - bypassing Ukraine. Despite U.S. sanctions, Moscow remains committed to completing the project.
However, some experts doubt that energy demand from Europe could be met through the pipeline alone. Russia would therefore continue to rely on Ukraine as a transit country.
