SIMFEROPOL: One year after Crimea's annexation by Moscow from Ukraine, the Black Sea peninsula is struggling with runaway inflation and isolation from the world, but locals still root for Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Though euphoric support has given way to simmering frustration over corruption and exorbitant prices, most locals believe that the Russian takeover of Crimea last February was for the best, branding any dissenting voices as traitors.
"I'm very happy that we've joined Russia, it was our dream for a long time," said Galina Tolmachyova, who works as a nurse in a health resort formerly owned by the Ukrainian defence ministry.
"There is some discontent" over delayed salaries but "the main thing is that there is no war," she said.
A total of 82 percent of Crimea residents fully support joining Russia, according to a poll released this month by respected GfK Ukraine pollster in Kiev. Only four percent oppose it.
The annexation was widely condemned by the international community and some believe it fuelled the pro-Russian uprisings in eastern Ukraine, unleashing a war which has killed nearly 5,800 people since April.
Moscow hailed the peninsula's ancient shores as the cradle of Russian civilisation, promising to pour billions into its development, notably by building a bridge to the Russian mainland.
For the moment, however, Crimeans are virtually stranded after Kiev cut off transport links.
People have to cross the two-kilometre (1 1/4 miles) stretch between the Russian and Ukrainian checkpoints at the de facto border on foot in an ordeal that some said takes up to 15 hours, while the ferry service with Russia is often cancelled during winter storms.
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