INTEGRATION OF THE CRIMEA INTO RUSSIA: THE PRICE PAID

Article Retracted.

The paper addresses the issues of integration of the Crimea and the city of Sevastopol into the Russian Federation. The economic implications of political steps made by the Russian government to introduce the Crimea into the economic and legal space of the Russian Federation are evaluated. The entry of the Crimea into the Russian Federation followed by significant investments is supposed to have cost much less than the prospects for the Crimea to be embedded in the economic and political development scenarios of modern Ukraine. The paper considers the political consequences of the Crimea’s integration into Russia. In the authors’ opinion, this integration has become an important event in the world politics that has significantly changed the field of international relations and the “rules of the game”. It is shown that the Crimean events have changed the vector of the Russian politic development both inside the country and within the international community. It is proved that the integration of the Crimea is becoming an important factor in the Russian political discourse linking the external and internal policies of modern Russia. This underlines the importance of the Crimean agenda in the public perception. The accession of the Crimea and the city of Sevastopol to the Russian Federation allowed the ruling elite of modern Russia to use the opened opportunities to the best effect in the interests of their own legitimation. The attitude of Russian citizens and Russia’s political allies to the Crimea’s accession will directly depend on the development of the conflict in the South East of Ukraine and the damage to the country’s economy from Western sanctions. At the same time, the prospects for the peninsula to avoid the development of events taking place on the territory of Ukraine proved to be more important than the “price” of the economic crisis and the difficulties of its entering the Russian economic and legal space.

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