Many have asked if it was worth for Russia to go so far as to annex Crimea. Ryan Rappa wrote an interesting article about the economic incentive behind the annexation. However, I tend to think that, given Crimea’s economic underdevelopment and the perception of power in Russia, the seizure of Crimea was done primarily for the political purpose and not for the economic one.
I agree with the points that there is a geopolitical incentive behind Russia’s annexation of Crimea and a potential to exploit oil and gas rich reserves. However, so far the plan of extraction was mostly on paper, …read more
Source: The Huffington Post