Water war on Putin, and the Crimean peninsula.

Ukraine is hitting The Crimean peninsula, and Putin, with what they have -  water supplies !

Just like Russia can ( and have done ) trottle the gas to some neigbouring countries.

Just like gas for heating your home, also water is necessary to us all. 

On the Crimean peninsula, drinking water and water for farming is in short supply.

The soon to be famous north Crimean Canal takes water from the big Dnieper river to the peninsula, something like 400 km.

This single canal is said to supply some 80% of the water used on the Crimean peninsula.

Funny how often the 80 - 20% is used.

It so happens that 80% of the Russian gas transported to western European passes through pipelines across Ukraine soil.    

Following the tense relations Ukraine decided to cut down on the water in the canal - from the normal 80 - 90 cubic meters, all the way down below 10 cubic meters. Some say this is the lowest possible level for the North Crimean canal.

To the farmers producing rice, grapes and other crops are now facing a shortage of water.

Amonst many Russians the Americans and NATO is something unknown and bad, it is like someone you would use to scare the kids...

The economy of the Crimean peninsula is going to be hit by this water shortage in the short run, more or less.
In the long run there will efforts made to solve the water supply - like new wells ( if possible ) and maybe a pipeline from Russia.

There is a lot of water surrounding the peninsula - desalting sea water is one way. Ok, a bit costly for farming water - but ok for drinking water.

Russia will try and solve this problem as soon as possible, stating that there will be no problem to get drinking water. Water for farming is more difficult, to start with, farmers on the peninsula will be compensated for their losses - not a 100%, but still compensated.

Putin is now more popular than ever, since he brought back the Crimean peninsula to Russia, he should be very pleased.

To move on and try a take over of all of Ukraine - would not add much to his popularity in Russia, but it would affect his image world wide in a bad way. 



Addition 20:th of Maj
Yesterday we heard that Putin has ordered his troops back from the area nearby the Ukraine border.
Also he goes to Shanghai himself yesterday, a move to take the focus from the Crimea affaire ?

Turning to China is a way of taking the edge of any threats of isolation from Western Europe, USA and many more countries.

Then, it would be a great thing if China could use some Russian natural gas, in stead of burning all that coal...
The smoke from Chinese powerplants powered by coal do travel a long way.

I dont like to talk badly about coal - but burning coal does take a certain amount of cleaning the fumes / smoke. 
It does not seem like the cleaning devices are working on all Chinese powerplants, - judging from reports about pollution in Chinese cities.