"Gruz 200" is growing, but land in Crimea is not. The Russian Federation Army no longer wants seaside locations

In 2022, the Russian authorities began to promote the idea of distributing plots to military personnel in Crimea. Russian President Vladimir Putin launched such an initiative. At that time, Russia had been conducting military operations against Ukraine for several months, suffering heavy losses on the front. With the help of the promised land near the sea, the Russian authorities tried to replenish the ranks of the Russian army. In total, more than 4,000 land plots were available for distribution to soldiers in Crimea. But in the end, the idea did not get the desired result.

Either land or a million

At the end of March, deputies of the Crimean parliament under Moscow's control officially allowed members of the Russian military to receive monetary compensation instead of land. This issue was raised by the Russian head of Crimea, Sergei Aksenov.

According to the amendments to the "legislative act" regulating the transfer of Crimean land to the Russian Federation's military, participants in the Russian Federation's invasion of Ukraine in the privileged category and members of their families are given the opportunity to receive a one-time monetary compensation of one million rubles instead of a plot of land.

“Such an alternative support measure is due to the fact that in most cases the land plots received by the participants of the Special Military Operation (“special military operation” in Russia is called their full-scale invasion of Ukraine – KR) are not used for their intended purpose, but are put up for sale for the purpose of purchasing housing or other land in another settlement,” the press service of the Russian Parmelia reported.

Now, applicants are allowed to choose either land or money. If a soldier chooses compensation, he loses the right to free ownership of the land.

Those who have already been allocated plots with cadastral numbers by the authorities and notified of the possibility of their transfer will not be able to receive compensation for the land.

"The payment of a one-time cash compensation in exchange for free ownership of the land will be made one-time from the budget of Crimea," the Russian parliament of Crimea said in a statement.

Sergei Aksenov promised that the Russian military would be able to receive compensation within two weeks of submitting the application.

"They are more interested in money"

With this decision, the authorities of Crimea under the control of Moscow have actually legitimized the practice that has developed on the peninsula. In most cases, the plots are not used for their intended purpose, but are put up for sale, says Larisa Kulinich, Minister of Property and Land Relations of the Russian government of Crimea.

"This shows that citizens are more interested in receiving money that will allow them, for example, to purchase housing or a plot in another settlement. Moreover, there are frequent cases of citizens' complaints about the possibility of obtaining a plot in another district of Crimea, for example, where the SVO participant directly lives," she explained to reporters earlier.

A similar trend was observed in Sevastopol. There, Russian soldiers and their families began trading in the land plots they received much earlier than in other regions of the Crimean peninsula. In total, about 10,000 land plots were planned to be distributed to the Russian military in this city. But many plots were also put up for sale.

"We are observing a trend that many of the land plots received are being put up for sale. At the same time, it is clear that a lot of money from the budget will be needed to provide material compensation, so we are considering this issue comprehensively," the Russian head of Sevastopol Mikhail Razvozhaev said earlier.

In Sevastopol, the Russian Federation's military will compensate for the cost of land plots from the summer of 2024.

"There is simply no land that is "not sorry""

The idea of giving Crimean land to the Russian Federation's military was initially "a hoax for war propaganda," says Boris Babin, an expert from the Association for the Reintegration of Crimea.

"In Sevastopol, the occupiers were forced to sign due to the failure of the practical implementation of this idea earlier and instead of the plot of land offered a million rubles. Because there is no land in the city, which "is not a pity" to give to the cannon fodder of the aggressor. In Crimea, the invaders managed to announce several zones that were either completed for all these common needs or have an almost complete lack of infrastructure: from roads to electricity, and as it "suddenly" turned out, the installation of such infrastructure is very expensive, and as for the water supply, this problem does not have a more or less rational solution to this problem at all," he told Krym.Realii.

Boris Babin believes that paying a million rubles as a "swap" for land in Crimea is unequal to the real value of the plots in the region.

"It is tragicomic not only because for such "crazy money" in Crimea it is impossible to buy any land or housing. The cynicism of the situation is that literally last fall the same associates, trying to implement the Kremlin's criminal plan for recruitment in Crimea, promised recruits precisely a plot of land that could not be stimulated in the "full amount" similar to the "grave funds" in Rostov or Krasnodar in Russia," notes Boris Babin.

The failure of the idea of giving land to the Russian army on the Crimean peninsula was predicted from the very beginning in the Crimean Tatar Resource Center.

"This is a lie, because there is not so much land in Crimea. At the same time, every "potential applicant" dreams of getting land in Yalta or Alushta, and not in the Pervomaysky district. And there will definitely not be enough land, unless, of course, it is a question of two meters [graves] in Ukraine," said Iskender Bariev, head of the KRC board.