Political status of Crimea declared their independence from Ukraine as a single united state under the name of "Republic of Crimea". These two entities (Crimea and Sevastopol) were then annexed by Russia, where the Crimean Autonomous Republic became the "Republic of Crimea" as a Russian republic and Sevastopol became a Russian federal city. However, Ukraine and the majority of the international community do not consider the merge, the independence, the referendum, nor the annexation legitimate and still consider both entities as parts of Ukraine. Despite international opinion however, the currency, tax and legal system are all operational under Russian jurisdiction. Ukraine has applied for
Annexation of Crimea by the Russian Federation gas and electricity from mainland Ukraine. This requires building a bridge and a pipeline across the Kerch Strait. Also, Novinite claims that a Ukrainian expert told "Die Welt" that Crimea "will not be able to attract tourists". The first Deputy to Minister of Finance of Russian Federation Tatyana Nesterenko said in her interview to "Forbes Woman" that the decision to annex Crimea was made by Russian President Vladimir Putin exclusively, without consulting Russia's Finance Ministry. The Russian business newspaper "Kommersant" expresses an opinion that Russia will not acquire anything economically from "accessing" Crimea, which is not very developed industrially, having