Crimea Is Now Putin's Problem Child
Russian security services are cracking down on alleged corruption in the newly annexed peninsula
Russian President Vladimir Putin attends a meeting of the Russian Geographical Society’s Board of Trustees on April 27, 2015, in St. Petersburg.
Photographer: Sasha Mordovets/Getty ImagesThis article is for subscribers only.
President Vladimir Putin likened Russia’s 2014 annexation of Crimea to a family welcoming home a long-lost relative.
Now the family is showing signs of strain. Russia’s federal security service, the FSB, has opened criminal investigations of three high-ranking Crimean government officials, accusing them of graft and other misdeeds. Four regional cabinet ministers have been forced from office in the past few months over allegations of corruption. And Kremlin auditors reported in June that two-thirds of the money Moscow sent Crimea last year for road building couldn’t be accounted for.