Russia will soon Open Bridge linking Crimea to Russia

AFP, KERCH: Russian President Vladimir Putin is set to unveil Tuesday a highly symbolic bridge linking southern Russia to the Crimea, four years after the peninsula was annexed from Ukraine.

The Crimean Bridge, at 19 kilometers will be Europe's longest, overtaking Lisbon's Vasco da Gama Bridge.

Built at a cost of 228 billion rubles ($3.7 billion), the new structure, connects the southern Krasnodar region with the Crimean city of Kerch, spanning a strait between the Black and Azov seas.

Ukraine has condemned the project, which was personally championed by Putin, saying construction has damaged the environment and that larger ships will be unable to get through to its ports on the Azov Sea.

Meanwhile, Ukraine's security service raided the offices of Russian state media in Kiev and detained one journalist, moves the chief editor of Russia's RT television suggested were linked to the bridge opening.

The chief editor of the Kremlin-funded channel, Margarita Simonyan, wrote on Twitter that "Kiev decided to take revenge on us for the Crimean Bridge," after the raids on the offices of RIA Novosti state news agency, which is part of the same media group as RT.

European Union and U.S. sanctions have targeted those involved in building the bridge, principally Putin's close ally, businessman Arkady Rotenberg, whose company Stroygazmontazh won the construction contract.

The annexation of the peninsula in 2014 was condemned by Kiev and the West as an illegal land grab but applauded in Russia.

Currently the peninsula is hard to reach from southern Russia with long queues of vehicles often forming to board ferries, which cannot always run in winter storms, so the easiest way across is to fly.

Because of blocks imposed by Kiev,...