Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a decree “About the Southern Federal District”, which resulted in Crimea and Sevastopol become a part of the Southern Federal District (SFD). According to experts of the Crimean Human Rights Group, it will further strengthen the integration of Crimea in the Russian legal and administrative system and cancels a special status of Crimea that existed before for the Russian authorities. The composition of the SFD also includes the Republic of Adygea and Kalmykia, Astrakhan, Volgograd and Rostov Regions and Krasnodar Territory. So, Crimea issues will now be addressed along with others, not small areas. The decree says about a significant decrease in the possibility of taking independent decisions by de facto authorities of Crimea. Also, most likely, serious personnel changes will take place during the implementation of the decree, which will result in coming of more officials from different regions of Russia to “manage” Crimea. They do not know the specifics and peculiarities of Crimea; local problems are alien for them. As they are not connected with Crimea, then it will be much easier for them to make decisions that may adversely affect the fate of many Crimean people, for example, the transfer of their property to the “big managers”, the eviction of people from the luxury coastal areas, closing of local businesses, etc.
It will be even more difficult to find a solution to social problems of Crimeans, because now most local problems will be considered not in Simferopol or Sevastopol but in Rostov.
If before the de facto Crimean authorities could seek any exceptions for the peninsula in the administrative or bureaucratic sphere, now everything will be the same “as the others”. As a result, it will be even more difficult to maintain communication with the mainland for Ukrainian citizens living in Crimea.
