Lack of welcome and poor integration: Russians fleeing Crimea
Around one million people moved there after the 2014 annexation from the northern regions, as well as Moscow and St Petersburg. Over time, difficulties in adapting have emerged, and many have decided to return. The cost of property and the lack of infrastructure, combined with the ‘Crimean mentality’, weigh heavily. Of the 10 Russians who have arrived in recent years, only two on average stay.
Moscow (AsiaNews) - About one million Russians moved to Crimea after the 2014 annexation, mainly from the northern regions, but also from Moscow and St Petersburg, seeing this as an opportunity to live by the sea and earn money from federal subsidies allocated by Moscow to new residents.
However, many have struggled to adapt and have returned to Russia, and even today it is not easy for Russians to truly integrate into the local reality, as documented by a report by Krym.Realii.
One difficulty for many is the very high price of real estate, in addition to the lack of infrastructure, low salaries and a climate that is not always welcoming, beyond the summer season.
For many Russians, however, what made their stay difficult was the “Crimean mentality”, which has rather specific characteristics, in addition, of course, to the military factor linked to the war and Ukraine's continuous attacks on Russian targets in Crimea, which has become one of the key bastions for the defence of the occupied territories. In reality, as real estate and tourism agencies in the area report, the return to Russia began well before the invasion of Donbass.
According to real estate consultant Ksenia Švarts, out of ten Russians who arrived in recent years, only two on average stay. She herself comes from the northern city of Perm, but believes she has managed to find a suitable way to coexist with the local population.
Many rushed to sell everything and come to Crimea with their families, ‘thinking they were expected,’ Ksenia writes on her blog, and that everything would be fine, but in reality, difficulties arose immediately, starting with the search for a job in Sevastopol or elsewhere. State propaganda points to the peninsula's capital as having the highest population growth rate of any region in Russia.
In reality, the city of Sevastopol has no real urban development plan, and many end up “feeling lost”, as recounted by a family from Samara, who soon moved to Novorossiysk. The impression is that “the world stopped in the 1990s, there is no real development”.
The capital, like many other cities on the peninsula, remains a holiday resort, where it is not easy to build a life, especially as many local residents remain convinced that they “are part of Ukraine” and that sooner or later it will be possible to reunite with Kiev. Yuri and Oksana's family left, and as soon as they left Sevastopol, “we felt as if a huge weight had been lifted from our shoulders, the weight of the whole world bearing down on Crimea, it's an unbearable tension”.
A Moscow entrepreneur, Aleksandr Sergeev, confirms that “it is not easy to adapt to the local mentality; we are considered outsiders, even though we have been living here for some time”.
The enthusiasm of going to live “in an interesting place, with the sea and a beautiful climate” is not enough, and only those who have capital set aside or who can work remotely are able to enjoy the beauty of the area.
The average salary in Crimea remains around 35-40 thousand roubles per month (less than 400 euros), ranking last in terms of average income among all regions of the Russian Federation, only slightly higher in the capital Sevastopol, while 11.4% of the local population remains below the poverty line, without having managed to improve much in 11 years of annexation to Russia.
Russians are also viewed with hostility because of the forced transfer of the local population to other regions, starting with the Crimean Tatars and those who appear to be more pro-Ukrainian.
According to various statistics, between 30 and 40% of Crimeans have had to leave their land, and many new inhabitants have arrived from the rest of Russia on the initiative of the state, which can be described as a form of genocide, similar to the deportations from these and other territories decided by Stalin in the last century, which certainly does not favour the reception of Russians in Crimea.
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