The old story about Roman emperor Nero fiddling while his city burned to the bottom includes a mythic quality that could be applied to Vladimir Putin today. Dealing with an international scandal after Russia’s seeming involvement in shooting a Malaysia Air passenger jet out of the sky, the Russian president has chosen now to ok a new gambling zone in Crimea; a small region just to the south of Ukraine, where in actuality the horrific incident took place the other day.

Of course, unlike Nero, Putin stays firmly in charge of all things Russian, and it has borne the brunt of surprisingly little outrage that is international the incident which was allegedly carried out under his military’s auspices.

Putin signed into impact a law this week that will transform the territory that is annexed of into a gambling zone for Russian holidaymakers. Within the light of recent events in Eastern Ukraine, Putin, faced with the prospect of increased US/EU sanctions, could perhaps have selected a more apposite moment to make this particular announcement, but he could be nothing if not bull-headed, and it is clear he is determined to produce the region economically self-sufficient.

Russia annexed the territory that is largely russian-speaking the Ukraine in March, carrying out a referendum on its status that the US and EU consider to be illegitimate. Western states will not recognize Crimea’s reunification with Russia, while Ukraine continues to claim it included in its territory.

The region possessed a economy that is struggling before the territorial dispute, and experts estimate Crimea may run a fiscal deficit of 55 billion rubles ($1.5 billion) in 2010. It’s believed that Russia could spend just as much as $2.8 billion of its emergency budget reserves subsidizing Crimea.

What are the results in Crime Stays in Crimea

This makes the tragedy of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17, that has been shot down by Russian-backed separatists in Eastern Ukraine, resulting within the deaths of all 298 people up to speed, all the more embarrassing and frustrating for the president, who is anxious to encourage tourism into the Crimean Peninsula. The region has been a traditional destination for summer vacationers and there are obvious and legitimate concerns that political troubles will keep them at bay with its Black Sea resorts and Mediterranean climate.

Russia has been trying to entice tourists with promotions and assurances of safety, such as visa-free happen to be the Crimea for Chinese visitors, and it has been incentives that are offering state companies for treating their workers to free vacations in the region.

The brand new Crimean gambling zone will add casino resorts and hotels that would form section of an unique economic area, offering tax breaks for organizations who choose to develop and invest in your community. Russia currently has four designated ‚gambling zones,‘ that have been developed five years ago following an authoritarian ‚anti-vice‘ crackdown that shut down scores of casinos and poker groups across the country. Operators were forced to more remote areas associated with the country, away from big cities, or pursue various careers.

In the Zones

The zones had been established in the Baltic enclave of Kaliningrad, between Poland and Lithuania; Altai, on the Kazakhstan border; and Vladivostok near the edges with China and North Korea. a 4th, in Russia’s Krasnodar territory, lies near to Crimea and the Ebony Sea and enjoys an economy that is flourishing tourist trade, aswell as having the just currently operational full-scale casino resort, Azov City. According to reports within the Russian media, the law that is new expand this zone to pay for the town of Sochi, the host of this 12 months’s Winter Olympics, with recommendations that casino resorts are going to be built across the Olympic Village.

The choice to legalize casino gambling in Sochi can be an interesting one; when asked following the Winter Olympics whether there such plans for Sochi, Putin, whom seems to really have a dislike that is personal gambling generally speaking, answered that, no, Sochi would remain a ‚family resort.‘ However, with sanctions looming, Putin may have little option but to embrace the prospective economic benefits this most distasteful of vices might provide.