“Crimea will be a backwater of Russia. What’s good here? The prices are crazy and salaries are laughable,” grumbled 35-year-old taxi driver Nikolai, deftly negotiating potholes and rutted roads in the center of the capital, Simferopol.
Life was hard when Crimea was part of Ukraine but it is proving no easier as part of Russia, which has been hit by Western economic sanctions over the annexation of Crimea and Moscow’s support for separatists fighting in eastern Ukraine.
“Ordinary Russians lost out with the annexation of Crimea,” said Sergei, a construction goods retailer from Kiev who moved to Simferopol last year with his wife and children after protests that turned violent in the Ukrainian capital.
“Across the whole of Russia, prices are going up, there are sanctions, the rouble has devalued,” he said, closing the kitchen window to stop his neighbors overhearing.
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