While Russia has continued to pictre the shift of power in Crimea as orderly and peaceful, reports tell another tale. Basic issues such as currency have not been yet worked out, as Al Jazeera reveals:
“Lawyers and judges complain that the legal system is all but paralyzed. Shopkeepers post prices in both Russian rubles and Ukrainian hryvnias, but have to resort to hand calculators to make change. Black market currency-exchange rates are rising above official rates. Public sector workers are being advised to take their ruble salaries and stipends and immediately change them into hryvnias…
…Prices for goods like gasoline and meat have risen 15 to 30 percent. Generators are being brought in to insulate institutions like hospitals from shortages in electricity transmitted from the mainland. Crimea’s main economic engine, tourism, is in danger, as the turmoil spooks tour operators and newly imposed visa requirements make vacations more of a headache.”
Al Jazeera reports that the main airport is closed to all flights except those from Moscow and that on March 29, Crimeans officially lost two hours, as the region shifted from the time zone of the capital, Kyiv, to Russian Moscow.
“There is no law in Crimea right now,”said Yan Akhramovich, a Simferopol lawyer and member of the equivalent of the Ukrainian bar association. “Ukrainian law doesn’t work because we’re now supposed to be part of Russia. Russian law doesn’t work because there are no Ukrainian lawyers here who know Russian law.” —
‘Read more at Al Jazeera.
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