Integration of the Crimean Republic, which became a Russian region after the March 2014 referendum, is quicker than the local authorities expected in the beginning, Speaker of the republic’s State Council Vladimir Konstantinov said in an interview with TASS on Nov.19.
"The integration develops very quickly, even quicker than we have expected," he said. "I could not expect people to change that much and to be able to forget what Ukraine is and how it was to live in Ukraine."
Crimea’s economy "has adapted to the Russian standards already," he continued. "And this has happened quicker than we have expected."
"The Crimean companies have focused on the Russian market," he said. "Our businesses get used to the Russian market, see its advantages and use them for their own benefits."
Most importantly, he added, "the integration has been in the minds."
"It is absolutely impossible to imagine now a part of that Ukraine, which we see for the recent three years," the speaker said. "Those, who seized illegally the power in that country, have developed it into a generator of hatred, a bed of neo-Nazism and terrorism."
While a part of Russia, many people living in Crimea have got rid of the concerns about future or from fears for security, which "were in the air" during the disorders in Kiev, he said. "It is in the past now; we are a part of a strong country, with strong armed forces, strong president - all this has made up the environment in which people have changed greatly within two and a half years."
The region still has certain problems, connected with the transition period and the sanctions, but anyway Crimea’s breakthrough is evident, he said.
"The transition period’s problems related to the economy - do exist, but they are of temporary character, and we are to settle them," he continued. "You know, most property in Crimea is still registered by Ukrainian documents, which are still valid and need to be re-registered, while all the rest develops fine."
Source: TASS