The resignations of the Crimean siloviki and their replacement by appointees from neighboring Russia is a clear signal of the beginning of a new political era in the history of the occupied peninsula. The very occupation of Crimea was carried out by the Kremlin on the basis of a model of support for the collaborationist political and entrepreneurial elite of the seized territory.

The decision to "join" to a neighboring country was "accepted" by the parliament, elected even before the annexation of the peninsula. On all the leading posts on the peninsula were those who for decades controlled the political situation and was associated with various criminal and pericriminal groups. One can even say that, in comparison with the previous era - the time of Viktor Yanukovich - the positions of these people even intensified, as the joint Russian and Crimean efforts from the authorities and businesses squeezed out representatives of the Donetsk clans who supervised the Crimea under the former Ukrainian president. "Makeevsky" left, and the "Kremlin" did not come.

The Crimea turned into a real "state in the state", the patrimony of its own clans. It was no coincidence that its new ruler, Sergei Aksenov, spoke with such enthusiasm about the activities of Chechnya's leader Ramzan Kadyrov, whose regime became a symbol of such a "state in the state", proof of the possibility of complete independence from the Kremlin for Russian money.

But only the Crimea is not Chechnya, in which Kadyrov supports the stability of his own administration after two bloody wars in the Caucasus, and very few people understand what awaits Russia in the event of the collapse of this stability. The Crimea is not even Dagestan, where the Kremlin only recently dared to send the first "Varyag" in the history of this Caucasian republic, gradually clearing out the local criminalized "elite". Crimea is a territory that Moscow, if desired, can control without local help.

The presence of Crimeans in leading positions in the Crimea was necessary not even from the point of view of ensuring stability on the peninsula after the occupation, but for banal propaganda - to show that the Crimean inhabitants themselves staged the "Crimean spring", took power in their own hands, defended themselves against " Bandera "and themselves joined Russia.

But after the occupation of the Crimea four years have passed, few people in the world and in Russia itself are interested in this propaganda. The peninsula - as, indeed, Russia itself - is still under sanctions. Crimean theme is gradually disappearing from the Russian information space. Citizens are now interested in pensions, not Crimea. And Putin, all the more obvious, is interested in real control over the territory of the peninsula, not the interests and appetites of Aksenov or Konstantinov.

Therefore, the collaborationist elite of the Crimea is likely to soon have to seriously make room or even go "off the beach" - this is what the new Putin siloviki sent to the peninsula should provide. Someone will be removed, someone will be arrested, someone will be imprisoned. However, the main figurants of the "Crimean spring", it seems, do not threaten landing - why spoil the myth? They, probably, expect either honorary resignation, or no less honorable funeral. And what exactly is Putin already deciding.

Vitaly Portnikov Source: Crimea. Realities.