MOSCOW, March 18 (RIA Novosti) – Crimea has already received the first installment of financial aid from Russia, the republic’s first deputy prime minister said on Tuesday.
Crimean leaders signed a reunification treaty with Russia earlier in the day, incorporating the republic into the territory of Russia.
“The first installments have already arrived. We need this support, because Kiev stopped financing our military and law enforcement. We expect to receive the first tax revenues in late May or June… then we won’t need so much support,” Rustam Temirgaliyev said in an interview with RIA Novosti.
He said that Crimea is expected to switch to the Russian national currency in early April.
“Unfortunately I have to say that there will be no transition period when the [Russian] ruble and the [Ukrainian] hryvna will be simultaneously effective. This is hardly possible because the Ukrainian National Bank stopped supplying us with hryvnas,” the premier said.
