INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
Monday's strike on the sole bridge connecting mainland Russia to annexed Crimea, the second attack in 10 months, has been met with little
surprise among Russian political and business elites despite killing two people and disrupting a key transit link.As the war in Ukraine
become a high-profile military target.But while the October 2022 explosion that tore the bridge apart elicited shock and astonishment in
It may sound cynical, but [these attacks] have already become routine," a Russian government official told The Moscow Times, speaking on
condition of anonymity."I reacted calmly
I think the response would have been worse if we had ceded Bakhmut, for example," an insider close to the Kremlin told The Moscow Times,
referring to the eastern Ukrainian city that was the site of the longest battle of the war.Among Russian business executives, "there seems
We've gotten used to it," a member of Russia's business circles told The Moscow Times by phone.In a routine meeting with security and
construction officials Monday afternoon, President Vladimir Putin vowed that Russia would retaliate against Ukraine and ordered Russia's
strikes on Ukrainian cities, as it has done in the past.Restored traffic on one lane of the Crimean Bridge in the direction of Kerch.Marat
both humanitarian and strategic in nature, as the Crimea bridge is a major logistics artery for civilian and Russian military cargo
shock to the Kremlin, with Putin personally promising to restore it by the start of this year's tourist season as well as to beef up
Now, the highway across the Kerch Strait is once again out of regular service.So far this summer, traffic on the bridge has been repeatedly
disrupted due to the looming threat of aerial strikes
Because of this, travelers have been forced to wait in traffic jams stretching for several kilometers
to Crimea and to provide for its security.However, the war has jeopardized both the safety and well-being of the region's residents, who
were promised a better life by the Kremlin when it annexed the peninsula in 2014.Independent experts said the latest attack underscores
about the Kremlin's commitments to its occupied territories as the war drags on, Yevgeny Roshchin, a researcher at Princeton University,
told The Moscow Times."I doubt that people there seriously count on them, given the previous bridge bombing and regular drone strikes
This is the new normal for people
They will curse their hearts out and wait for the spans to be rebuilt, or for the flow of tourists over land," Roshchin said.According to
off travel routes between Crimea and Russia
Or to make it risky and inconvenient," Ignatov told The Moscow Times."Welfare, security and other obligations to Crimeans? This is a war,
