Translated from Rusian at Sprotyv.info

Russia does not have the possibility to provide water to the occupied Crimea without Ukraine’s participation. Agriculture and industry of the peninsula are suffering from dehydration, and the steppe could turn into a lifeless desert. Kremlin can’t recognize its failure. Moscow is preparing an information ground for the future ultimatum to Ukraine: either Kiev unlocks the North-Crimean channel, or the Kremlin uses force – writes Sergei Stelmakh, the Crimean political analyst, in an article for “Krym.Realii”.

“The Secretary of the Russian Security Council Nikolai Patrushev held a meeting in the Crimea. The official stated the catastrophic situation of the water supply of the peninsula and accused the “unfriendly” Ukraine in an attempt to destabilize the situation in the region. The Russian Defense Ministry reported how the training of new recruits in the Marine Corps units stationed in the Crimea goes. What is the connection between the two messages? Most direct. Nikolai Patrushev at a meeting in Simferopol raised several issues: the lack of water supply on the peninsula, activities of “foreign agents, “threat” from the Ukrainian site and the interaction of the Russian Defense Industry with the Crimean enterprises. On the issue of water supply, the senior official stopped in detail. Indicators, voiced at the meeting can be called catastrophic. The Secretary of the Russian Security Council said that since the beginning of the annexation the irrigated area has decreased by 92%, industries affected”- the article says.

“Patrushev’s statement – is not just the words of an ordinary official. He is a person, who is a part of the inner circle of President Vladimir Putin. Along with the head of the FSB, the Russian Defense Minister and the chairman of the Foreign Intelligence Service, he is reporting to the head of the state on the situation in the country and the world. The Secretary of Security Council itself is involved in making critical political decisions. And if the theme of water supply Patrushev attended, so the issue was discussed at the highest levels in the Kremlin. And it is of vital importance. If Patrushev is so concerned by the water supply of the peninsula, then the issue was discussed at the highest level in the Kremlin. From Patrushev’s words, two main conclusions can be drawn. First, the Russian authorities failed the task of providing the Crimea with water. After Kiev had blocked the channel, republican “government” and the Moscow curators made a good face on a bad game: like saying, Russia will not leave the Crimean people in trouble, and find a way out.

Official optimism quickly dried up. At the end of the first year of annexation, “speaker” Vladimir Konstantinov accused Ukrainian authorities in the “vodomor” (similarly to Holodomor), demanded an international investigation to force Kiev to open a channel”, – says Stelmach.

“Patrushev’s statement indicates that Moscow does not have any chances to give Peninsula water without the participation of Ukraine. They are trying to convince the Crimean population that the culprit is not the Kremlin, which seized them, but Kiev, which from its “harmfulness” blocked the channel.

The Russian Security Council spins anti-Ukrainian hysteria. Everything goes to the fact that Putin wants to accuse Ukraine in “humanitarian catastrophe” on the peninsula and put forward an ultimatum: either Kiev opens a channel, or the Russian military will make it”- says the author.

Earlier, a group of “IS” reported, that the fact of peninsula occupation among Russian sympathies sank to 14th place.