Aid Elusive, Crimea Farms Face Hurdles

A rather in-depth look at the problems faced by the Crimean agriculture some months after the Russian invasion.

SIMFEROPOL, Crimea — Sergei V. Tur, a significant landowner, scowled beneath his desert camouflage cap as he watched a hulking combine chew through one of his golden barley fields, reaping part of what he predicts will be the best harvest in Crimea in three years.

The weather may be cooperating, but since the Russian annexation of the Black Sea peninsula in March, the political crisis has disrupted virtually every other aspect of farming — from irrigation to credit to exports.

“On a scale of one to five, we are at negative three,” said Mr. Tur, the head of the Association of Farmers and Landowners of Crimea, with 300 members among the largest 1,700 farms.
Russia has a terrible economic record in it's de-facto occupied territories as we noted earlier and the classic problems of it's economy are all surfacing, plus those specific to annexed Crimea:

Mr. Polyushkin, the agriculture minister, said produce trucks were waived right onto the ferry. Farm managers said that was news to them. Not only does the produce have to wait, but once the trucks get into Russia, Ukrainian license plates make them targets for constant stops, searches and shakedowns by the Russian police, producers said.

A steady parade of senior Kremlin officials, including Prime Minister Dmitri A. Medvedev and numerous ministers, have all promised help, farmers said. But little that is concrete has materialized.

“Russia talks about patriotism all the time, but they do not seem to be taking the simplest steps to promote Crimean goods,” said Gennadi V. Potabenko, a publicist working for Skvortsovo.