Russia Shows Off Control over Crimea with Banknote

STATES CHRONICLE – After annexing the peninsula from Ukraine in March last year now Russia shows off control over Crimea with banknote and an ‘energy bridge’.

The great political-geographical-economical scandal of last year was Russia’s annexation of Crimea, a territory located in the Black Sea. The peninsula belonged to Ukraine, after belonging to Russia in the past for a very long time. This was the main reason why they took it – claiming it was Russia’s by right.

Obviously, Ukraine had a different opinion and things escalated quickly into uprisings and ‘almost-revolutions’ in Ukraine as much of the population in this country has Russian roots. The West threatened to sanction Russia for stealing away another state’s territory, but in the end, not much was done.

Now, as if to show off the fact that Crimea belongs to Russia, the Russians released a new banknote for the peninsula. The banknote is worth 100 rubles, the equivalent of approximately $1,41, and depicts some sunken ships in the Sevastopol port, where Russia keeps a part of its fleet – which is another reason why they claimed Crimea.

The banknote also shows a castle on a cliff top near Yalta called the Swallow’s Nest and a watermark of Catherine the Great, the Russian Empress, who extended the Russian Empire borders and took over Crimea in the eighteen century.

According to the central bank of Russia, 20 million of the new banknotes will be issued. Also, this is not a first, as they have previously issued 10 ruble coins as a celebration of the annexation.

But the banknotes are just the tip of the iceberg. After a group of Ukrainian nationalists destroyed some pylons which supported the electricity lines coming from Ukraine to Crimea, the peninsula was left in darkness. As a result, they had to switch to local power-generation which they only kept for emergencies.

Given that Crimea belongs to Russia now, it is only normal Russia should take care of this. They have started to build a sort of ‘energy bridge’ which would link Russia to Crimea and will provide the peninsula with electricity.

There are already two lines of the energy bridge, which provide from 360 to 400 megawatts every day. The lines started operating this month and other two lines will be available starting April next year.

All in all, as time goes by it becomes clearer that Russia has indeed taken over Crimea and they are giving no signs of letting it go.

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