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What did Crimea's rail link mean on 23 December 2019?
Summary
A look back at the day the Kerch Strait rail link opened, and at a pipeline setback that came two days before it.
What did the Kerch Strait rail link change when it opened on 23 December 2019? On that date, construction of the bridge across the strait was completed, and a railway connecting Russia with Russian-occupied Crimea was put into operation.
The railway was the final element of the crossing. It gave Russia a rail connection to the occupied peninsula, which the bridge project had been built to serve.
A pipeline setback two days earlier
An energy story had unfolded shortly before. On 21 December 2019, a contractor suspended pipe-laying work on Nord Stream 2, the Russian gas pipeline to Europe, because of U.S. sanctions. Nord Stream 2 said it would finish construction "as soon as possible".
The two reports from those days concern different projects: a transport link to occupied Crimea, and a gas pipeline to Europe whose construction was halted by sanctions. Both involved Russian infrastructure, and both drew attention in Kyiv and across the region.
