Kyiv has fully lost Crimean market - head of Crimea
SIMFEROPOL. Jan 1 (Interfax) - Kyiv should forget about reincorporating Crimea into Ukraine, says head of Crimea Sergei Aksyonov.
"Kyiv had better stop dancing on a rake and forget about reincorporating Crimea into Ukraine. This is a case when, contrary to the proverb, daydreaming is harmful. They have absolutely lost the Crimean market and have antagonized the Crimeans even more," Aksyonov told journalists on Friday in commenting on the findings of a public opinion poll that was conducted in Crimea on Thursday and Friday to find out the local residents' attitude toward Ukraine's demand that a contract for power supply to Crimea include a wording denoting the peninsula as one belonging to Ukraine.
Sevastopol Governor Sergei Meyailo suggested that the poll "has shown the unanimous opinion of the people living in Sevastopol and Crimea as to their consent with the terms and conditions of power supply from Ukrainian territory."
"By giving this answer, the hero city and the city of Russian sailors [Sevastopol] has once again reaffirmed the choice made in 2014," the Sevastopol administration quoted Menyailo as saying.
Valery Fyodorov, the general director of the VTsIOM public opinion survey service, had said at a press conference earlier on Friday in presenting the findings of the poll of Crimea and Sevastopol residents concerning a power supply contract with Ukraine: "In general, the findings are as follows: 6.18% of the respondents support the Ukrainian version of the contract, while 93.2% do not support the conclusion of such a contract."
The poll also showed that 94% of Crimeans are prepared to experience temporary difficulties caused by the absence of a power supply contract with Ukraine, while 5.4% are not prepared for this.
VTSIOM conducted the poll of 2,525 respondents in Crimea and 500 in Sevastopol on December 31, 2015 and on January 1, 2016. Its margin of error is within 2.4%.