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rfmcdonaldTatiana Kozak's Transitions Online article suggests that, despite serious economic issues, Crimeans are happy with the results of the annexation.
A year after Russia’s annexation of Crimea, there appears to be nothing of Ukraine left in the peninsula’s capital city. Russian flags fly, Russian banks are open for business, and Russian police patrol the streets of Simferopol. The cash in people's pockets is rubles, and a sign detailing renovations at the landmark Alexander Nevsky Cathedral notes the patronage of Vladimir Putin.
The local samooborona, or “self-defense” forces, meet within the walls of the State Council of Crimea. A year after they occupied the building – keeping armed watch as lawmakers elected Sergey Aksyonov, a pro-Russian businessman and politician with alleged ties to organized crime, as Crimea’s prime minister – the samooborona hold official status and patrol the streets alongside police.
[. . .]
Official figures seem to bear out the [pro-Russian] sentiment. Of Crimea’s population of more than 2 million, only 20,000 have left since the annexation. Just 3,500 have refused Russian citizenship.
[. . .]
The road to a Russian Crimea has not been without its potholes, especially for entrepreneurs like Anna. After the annexation, she had to re-register her company and adjust it to the new, Russian tax system, a process that overloaded tax offices.
“Once I got a consultation at 11:30 p.m.,” she recalled. “It was a government decision; if a customer entered the building before 7 p.m., they should be served. Tax workers did not leave for home until then.”
Western sanctions have caused inconveniences for Crimean companies, formerly integrated into Ukraine’s international trade agreements but now part of a Russian economy that’s partially frozen out of global business. Visa and MasterCard halted service here just after Christmas, and IT workers have left in droves. Russian banks offer only intra-national services and accept only Russian payment cards.
