Federal targeted programmes are a unique chance for the Crimean Peninsula to revive the infrastructure destroyed over a quarter of a century and become integrated into the Russian economy
More than a trillion
The Federal Targeted Programme for the Socioeconomic Development of Crimea and the City of Sevastopol is a driver of the republic’s growth. Due to this programme, the region is developing a broad up-to-date transport, energy, and social infrastructure that is crucial for resorts. The Russian Government launched the FTP in 2015 and has revised the plan several times since then, extending the deadlines and increasing the funding. The updated version of the FTP should be fully implemented by 2025. The government has approved allocating 1.3 trillion roubles from the federal budget in 2015-2025. Over the past five years, about 400 important infrastructure facilities have been built with this funding.
By the end of 2020, which was the most productive year in terms of spending under this programme, Crimea had no outstanding sums allocated for the programme, which means the region now has new schools, kindergartens, rural health centres, roads and other infrastructure. By the end of last year, Crimea had used up a record 97 percent of the programme financing and Sevastopol, 91 percent.
1.303 trillion roubles allocated for federal targeted programmes in Crimea and the city of Sevastopol from 2015 to 2025
Travel time halved
The main 2020 event in the Crimean road industry was the opening of the 250.7-kilometre Taurida federal motorway. The 149 billion rouble project was implemented under the federal targeted programme.
The new motorway has almost halved the travel time to most Crimean destinations. It takes two hours to drive from Kerch to Sevastopol, and just 45 minutes from Simferopol to Sevastopol.
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An interesting fact about the Taurida motorway: there are no at-grade intersections with other roads.
New level of medicine
The year the world was hit by the coronavirus pandemic, Crimea scored a major victory by opening a new building of the Semashko Republican Clinical Hospital. With this new state-of-the-art medical centre, the region reached a new level of medical care. It was indeed one of the most ambitious projects implemented under the federal targeted programme. The new healthcare facility has more than twenty specialised departments, including radiation diagnostics, resuscitation, ICU, neurology and cardiology. It has wards with 734 beds; the total floor space is about 65,000 square metres. The medical complex includes a catering unit, its own boiler room, an oxygen station, three transformer substations and even a bomb shelter. The hospital is fitted out with state-of-the-art equipment of the highest class, with intensive care units and ten operating rooms.
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A total of 10 billion roubles has been invested in the construction of the multipurpose republican medical centre, the Semashko Republican Clinical Hospital.
The hallmark of Crimea
At the end of last year, one of the most recognisable symbols of Crimea, the Swallow’s Nest castle, finally reopened after major renovations. This cultural landmark was also revived due to the federal targeted programme, with 87 million roubles provided to renovate the castle. For many years, this historical and architectural heritage piece was in a lamentable state, and its museum services remained limited for a long time. The observation deck at over 40 metres above the sea level was closed because the slab and the foundation of the castle were structurally unsafe.
Other important landmarks around Crimea are also being repaired, including the Kerch Fortress and the Adzhimushkai Memorial Complex in Kerch, the Khan’s Palace in Bakhchisarai, and the Vorontsov Palace in Yalta.
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There are more than 4,700 federal and regional landmarks, as well as newly identified sites of cultural and archaeological heritage in Crimea. Together they make up the golden portfolio of the peninsula.
The Hero City Symbol
The Great Mithridates Staircase, the best-known landmark in Kerch, was reopened on Victory Day in 2021 after major renovations. The staircase, one of the main symbols of the hero-city, has been repaired under the Federal Targeted Programme for the Socioeconomic Development of the Republic of Crimea and the City of Sevastopol after it remained in disrepair for a long time. During his visit to Kerch in September 2016, President of Russia Vladimir Putin issued instructions that the staircase must be restored. The renovations began in September 2019.
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The estimated cost of the restoration project for the Great and Small Mithridates Staircases exceeded 1.1 billion roubles.
A sports resort
The Crimean sports infrastructure is also being revived thanks to the FTP. The plan is to open 18 sports and fitness centres, 16 of them in Sevastopol and two elsewhere in Crimea. In addition, many sports centres are being revived under a different federal programme, namely, the federal targeted programme Development of Fitness and Sports. The Centre for the Training of Crimean Teams in Simferopol has been renovated; the second stage of renovation of the regional sports and training centre Crimea-Sport is nearing completion; a new 18,000-square-metre water sports centre is under construction. The Olympic reserve school in Krasnolesye, Simferopol District, was renovated last summer and is used as a training base for the Republic of Crimea teams. Repairs at the Avangard Stadium in Yalta, built in the 1960s, are almost complete. The renovated Sports Palace in Yevpatoria is going through the final stage of putting into operation. The project included renovation of the existing building and the construction of a new multifunctional sports and recreation complex.
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Over the past few years, more than 20 billion roubles have been allocated for the development of sports in Crimea. Since 2019, 219 sports grounds have been installed in all districts of the peninsula.
Balneotherapy health resort
A new embankment embracing the medicinal lake in the Saki resort was unveiled in June 2021. The 800 million rouble project, implemented as part of the federal targeted programme for Crimea and Sevastopol, included six thematic fountains, 47 drinking fountains, hardscape elements, an amphitheatre with 650 seats and nine playgrounds for children of different age groups along the 2.7-kilometre embankment of the Saki medicinal lake. Earlier improvement projects in Saki included the hydrogeological research and production station, which performs observations on the medicinal lake and mines therapeutic mud. The facility is successfully operating, with a new 20-tonne brine tower, a mud mining unit and a brine pumping station. The therapeutic mud production surged six-fold.
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The largest tranches under the FTP in 2021 will go to the Saki urban district, with more than 689.9 million roubles, followed by Feodosia that will receive over 306 million roubles this year.
Thousands of preschool places
The waiting lists at Crimean preschools have been largely reduced due to the efforts made under the federal targeted programme and other social programmes. In 2014, the republic began the construction and major renovation of preschools and daycare facilities, including modular ones. According to the Ministry of Economic Development, the FTP for Crimea and Sevastopol has contributed to the opening of 28 preschools and six schools as of the beginning of 2021. Overall, thanks to various programmes, Crimea has received over 21,000 new preschool places. Twelve districts have reached 100 percent availability of preschools for children aged from 2 months to 7 years. It is also indicative that the average availability of preschools to children from birth to the age of 3 in Crimea is over 78 percent.
By 2024, 18 more schools and 61 facilities for children under seven are to be built in Crimea. The federal targeted programme for 2020-2024 envisages more than 21 billion roubles for the education system development in Crimea and the city of Sevastopol.
