MOSCOW, June 3 (RIA Novosti) – Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev has urged the Ministry of Transport to improve the only ferry link between the newly-acquired Crimean peninsula on the Black Sea and mainland Russia, the Kremlin said.
According to the official Kremlin webpage, the Russian prime-minister tasked the country’s transport authority with “analyzing the issue of passenger ferry traffic and taking necessary measures if needed to make this service efficient, sufficient and affordable, such as having passengers stand shorter queues or capping time required to load their transport vehicles [on ferries].”
A total of five passenger ferries run regularly across the Strait of Kerch that connects Crimea’s easternmost Kerch region with Krasnodar in southwestern Russia, in addition to two transport ones.
In late May, President Vladimir Putin ordered his administration to address transport concerns in Crimea, which has been severed from the existing traffic routes by a series of Ukrainian traffic regulations.
Crimea, previously an autonomous republic within Ukraine, refused to recognize the legitimacy of the government in Kiev which seized power as a result of a coup in February, instead rejoining Russia following a referendum on the issue.