Prices are higher in occupied Crimea than in Russia

The Russian head of Crimea, Sergey Aksenov, explained the high prices on the annexed peninsula by the lack of competition and large Russian operators. He stated this in an interview with Kommersant, answering the question why prices in Crimea are "literally higher for everything" than in Russia, he writes ru.krymr.com.

"The main reasons for high prices are lack of competition, lack of large operators. All Russian regions have budget-generating enterprises on their territory, each of which will receive about 10 billion rubles from the income tax alone. In Crimea, the largest taxpayer is a non-alcoholic beer plant. This is only 1,2 billion rubles. taxes All the rest - conditionally 100 million rubles each. The largest taxpayers of personal income tax on the peninsula are the Ministry of Defense and the FSB. And 85% of Crimea's budget is profit tax and personal income tax. The remaining 15% is various aggregated income. "We have neither Gazprom nor Sberbank, no one who is a "legislator of trends" in the regional economy," said Aksenov.

He noted that "not a single network player has gone directly to Crimea - neither gas companies, nor fuel companies, nor mainland communication, trade networks."

"It is clear that we will not force anyone to enter the peninsula physically, if the losses they will suffer in Europe will be measured in billions of dollars. I understand all this, and we do not set any conditions here. As an option for Western European companies that have come under Russian sanctions, there was a proposal to lift the sanctions on them on the condition that they open a representative office in Crimea. It seems to me that the desire to make money in a number of enterprises will exceed political arguments," says Aksenov.

On June 30, 2020, the Crimean authorities announced the launch of freight trains on the Kerch Bridge. The Russian head of Crimea, Sergey Aksenov, expected that this would help lower prices for products on the peninsula. Prior to that, only passenger cars traveled on the bridge.