Paul
Goble
Staunton, June 1 – Russia’s economic
development ministry is preparing legislation that would allow Moscow to seize
significant amounts of land in Crimea on an accelerated basis in the name of
promoting economic development, a measure that is modelled on the one Vladimir
Putin used in the run-up to the Sochi Olympiad.
According to a report in “Yezhednevny
zhurnal,” the measure would reduce the amount of time that the authorities
would have to give to property owners before their lands or buildings could be
seized from the one year standard of existing Russian law to only three months
(ej.ru/?a=note&id=25254).
Much of the pressure for this measure
comes from within the Russian government itself which wants to promote a gaming
industry in the hopes of reducing the costs of the annexation by raising tax
money from that sector. But as the Moscow
newspaper notes, “there are a series of problems” with such a project.
First, many residents of Crimea aren’t
especially interested in the development of such an industry. They see their land as a place for family
vacations, not gambling. Second, they
point out that Crimea lacks the infrastructure and airports to support such a
program. And third, they suspect that
the government will seize the land and then privatize it into the hands of its
friends.
The second and third of these
concerns are especially important. As “Yezhednevny zhurnal” points out, a
gaming business requires a lot of infrastructure and a nearby airport. That is why today’s Moscow gamblers like
Tallinn: “there are good hotels, a good casino and the road from the airport
takes only 15 minutes.” None of that exists in Crimea
And the use of the government’s
power of eminent domain to seize land and then “quietly” privatize it can be
used to change the face of Crimea. It is not difficult to imagine that such new
powers will be used for Russians with close ties to Moscow and against groups
like the Crimean Tatars which oppose the annexation.
Moreover, the paper’s reference to
Sochi raises another unfortunate spectre: the rapid turnover in control of
property not accompanied by the construction of the necessary infrastructure or
by any realistic assessment of whether there will be enough demand to support
the new arrangements over the longer term.
Sochi only a few months after the
much-ballyhooed Olympiad is suffering from a lack of visitors, and it is not
difficult to imagine that this proposed legislation thus represents simply
another occasion for the Russian authorities and their allies to use the power
of the state to enrich themselves without regard to those whose rights are
violated and interests ignored.
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