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Putin officially unveils Crimea rail bridge, prompts EU denunciation

Monday, 23 December 2019 6:58 PM [ Last Update: Monday, 23 December 2019 7:09 PM ]

Russian President Vladimir Putin has officially opened a rail route linking Russia’s two biggest cities to Crimea, which rejoined the Russian Federation in 2014.

On Monday, the Russian leader stood in the driver’s cabin of a shortened three-carriage train for the unveiling ceremony of a 19-kilometer railway bridge that links the Black Sea peninsula to southern parts of the country and from there to the capital Moscow and St Petersburg.

Putin praised as “magnificent” the 227-billion-ruble ($3.6-billion) project during his ride from Kerch in Crimea.

“With your work, talent, determination and single-mindedness, you’ve shown that Russia is able to do such world-scale infrastructure projects. This is after all the longest bridge not only in Russia but also in Europe,” Putin told a crowd of construction workers.

“You’ve shown that we can do such large-scale projects using our own technological abilities. This, without exaggeration, gives us all confidence that we can and definitely will do similar projects in the future,” the Russian president added.

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In the morning, the first passenger train transporting 530 people departed from St Petersburg as Putin was watching it via video link from a location near the bridge in Russia’s Krasnodar region.

The total rail route from the major city to the Crimean port city of Sevastopol is some 2,500 kilometers.

As for Moscow, the passenger service is scheduled to commence on Tuesday. Freight and passenger services from other Russian cities are due to start next year.

Separately on Monday, the European Union in a statement denounced the opening, branding it “another violation of Ukraine’s sovereignty.”

It stressed that the rail route on the Kerch bridge was constructed “without Ukraine’s consent” and that it was “yet another step towards a forced integration of the illegally annexed peninsula.”

Relations between Moscow and the rest of Europe have deteriorated since 2014, when Crimea rejoined Russia following a referendum where more than 90 percent of participants voted in favor of separating from Ukraine. The West brands the reunification as annexation of Ukrainian land by Russia, which strongly rejects the allegation.

In siding with Ukraine, the European Union has followed Washington's lead in leveling several rounds of sanctions against Moscow.

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