Det företag som betalar mest skatt på Krim är en vodkaindustri ägd av en brittisk affärsman. Putins upptåg hindrar dock distributionen till 90% av marknaden i Ukraina. Men det blir väl ännu mer att dricka för de operettfigurer, sovjetfossiler och kosackpiskande råskinn som figurerat i den av ryssgangsterväldet hotade nyhetsförmedlingen från halvön:
http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/27e33084-a87b-11e3-b50f-00144feab7de.html#axzz2vYRNiVr3
Citat:
When he bought a vodka plant in Ukraine, a country with no shortage of spirits drinkers, British businessman Neil Smith thought he was on to a winner.
But of all the risks Mr Smith might have considered, a geopolitical crisis was not one of them. For Mr Smith’s factory is in Crimea, and Crimea has been in effect cut off from the rest of Ukraine. Thus, the Crimean Vodka Company cannot deliver to most of its market.
To add insult to injury, Mr Smith, 39, faces a Kiev-based internet campaign calling for a boycott of his brands because Crimea is contemplating breaking away from the rest of the country. “At the moment we are trying to work out what it all means for us,” says Mr Smith. “A week ago, it was all going well. Now, if we can’t get our shipments out we may have to shut down.”
Crimean Vodka contributes handsomely to the local economy; with 700 staff on the peninsula, it is one of the largest private sector employers and is the biggest taxpayer, handing over $95m annually to the exchequer.
Mr Smith, a former fund manager active in eastern Europe but now based in Cyprus, set up his own investment business in the region 10 years ago, beginning with property in Russia. He bought the bankrupt Crimean vodka company in 2010 and invested around $45m modernising the plant and its brands, Medoff, Neranya and Brunki.
Around the same time he set up a similar business in Russia in the Tatarstan region, producing the same brands. Together the companies now have a turnover of around $610m and employ around 3,500. “We have done well out if it,” he says.
But Crimean Vodka needs to cross the Isthmus of Perekop to reach the mainland Ukrainian market, which takes more than 90 per cent of its $260m-a-year sales. “Our biggest challenge is whether this market will remain open. I am afraid that the answer will be no.”
Ekonomiskt har Krim under många år varit en förlustaffär för centralregeringen i Kiev:
http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/27e33084-a87b-11e3-b50f-00144feab7de.html#axzz2vYRNiVr3
Citat:
These headaches are big enough. But they pale into insignificance in comparison with the challenges of running the peninsula’s entire economy.
Crimea obtains some 80 per cent of its water and electricity from the mainland, and some 65 per cent of its gas. Two-thirds of the holidaymakers coming to the tourism-dependent peninsula are from the rest of Ukraine. Kiev funds an estimated $800m of the $1.2bn annual regional public budget.
“Crimea costs ‘big Ukraine’ a lot of money,” said Oleksandr Shlapak, finance minister, on Monday. “In the economic sense, Ukraine would not lose out [from secession] because Crimea has always been a region which has been subsidised.”
