It turns out that deciding to give Crimea the money needed to build a bridge across the Lena River was not enough. The government is now proposing to give Crimea the funds earmarked for reconstructing the road leading to that bridge as well — the Yakutsk–Never federal highway.
Googling “M56 Lena” gives a very good idea of what this “federal highway” is actually like:
Now that Crimea has become part of Russia, of course it needs development. But there is still a sense that there are places in Russia where development money is needed more urgently than in Crimea.
You can’t spend 15 years repeating like a mantra at every meeting, “We must develop Siberia and the Far East; it is strategically important, it is our priority,” and then suddenly go, “Hmm... okay, let’s shift the cash to Crimea. Right now what matters is saying on TV that nothing is too good for Crimea.”
Here’s a practical suggestion: instead of taking money away from infrastructure in the eastern part of the country, why not save it on the program for preparing the 2018 FIFA World Cup? It already costs “just over 620 billion rubles” and there is clearly room to scrape together 44 billion.
If anyone disagrees, then you are the fifth column and national traitors, trading Russia’s Rebirth and “Crimea Is Ours” (a patriotic slogan) for some football tournament where the champions will be some decadent “Gayropeans” (a derogatory slang term for Europeans) who know nothing of “spiritual bonds” (a sarcastic reference to official conservative rhetoric). And this is how we will punish you: we’ll send you out onto the highway to the man stuck there like in the last photo. You must walk up to him, pat him on the shoulder, and say: “Don’t worry, Semyonych, Crimea is ours and the World Cup opening ceremony will be very beautiful.”