Putin signs a decree to strengthen measures to protect the transport crossing in the “Kerch Strait” linking Russia with Crimea

The Russian President Vladimir Putin on Saturday ordered tighter security measures for the bridge stretching from Russia to Crimea, as well as the infrastructure that supplies electricity and natural gas to the peninsula, Interfax news agency reported.

Putin said in a decree issued hours after the bridge was damaged in an explosion that the Federal Security Service will be responsible for strengthening protection measures.

A bridge linking Russia and Crimea, including a road and a train track, was damaged in a powerful explosion on Saturday, damaging an important supply route for Russian forces in Ukraine.

The Russia and Crimea, is a crucial link between Crimea and Russia, as the 19-kilometer Crimean Bridge over the Kerch Strait is the only direct link between Russia’s transport network and Crimea, which Moscow annexed from Ukraine in 2014.

The bridge was a pioneering project of Russian President Vladimir Putin, who opened it in a grand celebration during which he himself drove one of the trucks in 2018, and was built at a cost of $ 3.6 billion, by a company owned by Arkady Rothenberg, a close ally of Putin who used to play judo with him.

The bridge consisting of two separate roads, one by land and the other by rail, and it’s over a point where ships pass between the Black Sea and the smaller Sea of ​​Azov.

The bridge is important for supplying the Crimea with fuel, food and other products.

On the peninsula is the port of Sevastopol, which was historically the base of the Russian Black Sea Fleet, and also became a major supply route for Russian forces after Moscow invaded Ukraine on February 24 and sent forces from Crimea to take control of most of the Kherson region in southern Ukraine and some parts of the neighboring Zaporizhia region.

The Russian Defense Ministry said on Saturday that those forces could be fully supplied through existing land and sea routes.

The explosion, which occurred on Saturday, led to the fall of parts of the road in one of its directions.

Traffic was initially suspended after the accident, but by evening cars and buses were allowed to cross the bridge in both directions, using lanes that remained intact, while heavy goods vehicles waited to cross by ferry.

Russian officials said trains would resume on Saturday evening.

The distance from which ships pass through the strait wasn’t affected.

It worth noting that, most of the repairs was done, and the Bridge is got back to work.