Former US ambassador to Ukraine, Stanford University researcher Stephen Pifer in an interview with Crimea.Realities said that Russia should have thought about water supply to Crimea before illegally seizing the peninsula. The ex-ambassador stressed that now the Russian Federation has learned that the seizure of Crimea was much more expensive than expected.
“Look at the last six years: first, the Russians illegally used military force to seize Crimea, held this absolutely fake referendum, and then illegally annexed the peninsula. The fact that these are illegal actions is confirmed by the fact that so few countries in the world have recognized the inclusion of Crimea to Russia. But if we talk about the Donbas, then Russia did not try to annex it. There they didn’t do anything that would suggest that Moscow needs the Donbas. Russia has learned that the seizure of Crimea was much more expensive than expected”,- said Pifer.
Speaking about the water situation on the peninsula, the former US ambassador to Ukraine stressed that Russia should have thought about supplying Crimea with water before illegally seizing the peninsula. In his opinion, the Russian Federation is unlikely to dare to take military action due to the shortage of water.
“And if you are going to take over this canal and let water through it, you have to control the whole canal, otherwise it could be blocked. It would be a serious military operation. I think that an operation of this scale will almost certainly lead to a new round of even more tough sanctions from the United States and Europe. Sanctions will help to have a deterrent effect on Russians if they do something like that. In addition, the scale of such hostilities is a rather difficult task for Russia”,- he explained.