Crimea: state of emergency declared

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Crimea: state of emergency declared



CRIMEA: -- A state of emergency has been declared in Crimea after power lines carrying electricity from Ukraine were reportedly sabotaged.

The peninsula was left in the dark after the transmission towers were toppled on Saturday.

Generators are supplying power for vital services like hospitals and communications.

But 1.9 million of Crimea’s two million-strong population remain without electricity.

Crimea was annexed by Russia in 2014 after a referendum.

Russian media are saying the pylons in the Kherson region bordering Crimea were blown up by Ukrainian nationalists.

Russia, Ukraine and energy

Russia and Ukraine regularly negotiate reciprocal terms for supplying each other’s electricity needs.

Russian media have reported that Ukraine’s Energy Minister Volodymyr Demchyshyn said in October that Kiev intends to prolong its energy delivery contract with Russia before it expires in late December.

Food blockade may trigger a “hike in tensions”

The power blackout comes a day after the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) High Commissioner on National Minorities told a meeting of the permanent council that a food blockade of Crimea is causing concern.

Astrid Thors said the impeded access at the border between Ukraine and Crimea, attributed to Ukrainian activists by Russian news agency Tass, may trigger a “hike in tensions”.

Who are the Crimean Tatars and the Right Sector?

Crimean Tatars, an ethnic group opposed to Russian rule, have held a protest at the site.

an ethnic group native to Crimean peninsula
origins date back to 14th century
245,000 living in Crimea
they seek “ethnic and territorial autonomy” for Crimean Tatars using “political and legal” means
(Sources: Wikipedia, 2001 Ukrainian census,“New Republic”: http://bit.ly/1P05S7W)

Right Sector Ukrainian nationalists have also clashed with paramilitary police in the area, according to Ukrainian media.

umbrella organisation of far-right groups
became political party in March 2014
Russia says the group is the main reason it send troops into Crimea. However, international news agencies have found no evidence of hate crimes
(Sources: Wikipedia, BBC, Reuters, AFP, Wall Street Journal, AP)

Crimea – The Knowledge

Two million inhabitants
Annexed by the Russian Federation after referendum in 2014
Sovereignty currently disputed between Kiev and Moscow
Administered by Moscow as two “federal subjects” – the Republic of Crimea and the federal city of Sevastopol


-- (c) Copyright Euronews 2015-11-23

[craigt3365]

Seems many in Crimea are suffereing:

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/14/world/europe/in-crimea-a-disputed-beach-is-a-symbol-of-corruption.html?emc=edit_ae_20150813&nl=todaysheadlines&nlid=58582962

Seventeen months after Mr. Putin deployed Special Forces troops to seize Crimea from Ukraine, prompting the deepest confrontation with the West since the Cold War, life on this Black Sea peninsula remains in disarray.

Freedoms of speech and assembly have largely evaporated, as has a free and independent news media, but that is not what upsets people here. It is the familiar demons, government corruption, venality and incompetence, that have infuriated many.

A half-dozen cabinet members and other senior officials have been either arrested on corruption charges or fired for incompetence in recent months, and a Kremlin audit released in June found a huge chunk of highway funds missing. Two nights before his beach appearance, Mr. Aksyonov spent more than three hours answering a battery of questions live on television, a rare event, trying to explain it all.

[oneday]

Looks like Russia is going to have a rough time protecting miles of electrical pylons.

I would think they will continue to be very vulnerable targets in the future.

[Srikcir]

Putin deserves this reaction with his denial of natural gas to the EU in an effort to mitigate its support for Ukraine in the pro-Russian insurgency. But he'll insist it is purely a terriorist action that has no connection with Putin'soffensive actions.

Can Putin take a couple of Russian nuclear-powered subs and ships to its Sevastopol naval base and connect to the power grid?

In fact Russia has used naval vessels to supply electricity for domestic and industrial use in remote far eastern and Siberian towns. But those places had little demand and a nuclear sub reactor can only generate about 1/10th of the power of a commercial power plant. Assuming Putin could gather almost his entire nuclear fleet to meet the power needs of Crimea, it would take a while to design and build connections with the power grid.