Controversial Crimean bridge open to Russian tourists and international criticism

Waiting cars with Russian flags queued up ahead of the bridge's opening on Tuesday. Photo / Sergei Malgavko, TASS

Bridges aren't usually that controversial. That get you from A to B. End of.

But a controversial new bridge in Europe is causing a diplomatic crisis.

A new 19km and long-anticipated bridge linking Russia's Taman Peninsula with Crimea has opened for regular traffic.

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday inaugurated the bridge across the Kerch Strait to the Crimean Peninsula by driving a truck across it.

The issue is that Crimea isn't part of Russia, as far as most of the international community is concerned. Rather, it's part of Ukraine.

The Crimea has long been a popular holiday destination for Russian tourists. In spite of the frosty relations between the Ukraine and Russia, resorts of the Black Sea have long been seen as the Mediterranean of the former Eastern Block.

This bridge and a new airport due to open in Simferopol, is set to boost the number of holiday makers in the region.

"We expect around six million (tourists). I hope that the actual number will prove to be even larger," said Tourism Minister Vadim Volchenko, speaking with the Russian News Agency TASS.

Yet the rest of Ukraine does not share the same optimism about holiday prospects.

Russian President, Vladimir Putin was at the bridge's opening on Tuesday, posing for photos in a lorry. Photo / Handout

The annexation by Moscow of the largely Russian-speaking Ukrainian region in 2014 caused relations with the West to freeze to almost cold war levels.

Crimea includes a major Russian naval facility at Sevastopol that had been stranded in another country when the former USSR broke up. Now, it's under Moscow's control.

Until this week, the only way out of Crimea by land was through Ukraine and Kiev has blocked shipments of supplies via its territory.

Previously, all trucks and cars had to rely on a ferry service to reach the Russian mainland which led to the peninsular being often cut off by bad weather. With the new US$3.6 billion bridge, Russia now has an easy way to reach it's exclave.

Members of the Night Wolves motorcycle club riding motorbikes the new tarmac of the Kerch Strait Bridge. Photo Sergei Malgavko /TASS

At the opening Mr Putin said: "This is an excellent result that has made Crimea and the legendary Sevastopol stronger and brought us closer," reported Russia Today .

🇷🇺 Embassy’s reply to a media question regarding U.S. Department of State’s reaction to the opening ceremony of the...

Posted by Embassy of Russia in the USA / Посольство России в США on Tuesday, 15 May 2018

Ukraine's Government in Kiev worries that the new bridge will only strengthen Moscow's grip on its erstwhile region.

Ukraine's foreign minister Pavlo Klimkin said Russia had built a bridge to nowhere.

"This is a bridge between occupied Crimea, where people are scared and disappear, and Russia, where 1,600 can be arrested in one day for a peaceful protest. Both directions are roads to nowhere."

Britain's minister for Europe, Alan Duncan, said the bridge was a "violation of Ukraine's sovereignty".

Moscow hit back at condemnation of the bridge from the US State Department. On Facebook, the Russian Embassy in Washington DC said: "Crimea is Russia. We shall not ask for anybody's permission to build transport infrastructure for the sake of the population of Russian regions."

Car traffic across the bridge began on Wednesday, and it's set to open for trucks in the Northern autumn. A parallel railway bridge is set to be finished by the end of 2019.

Russia annexed Crimea in March 2014 following a hastily called local vote, a move that drew US and the EU sanctions.