Power blackouts test loyalty to Kremlin in Russian-annexed Crimea

A single light illuminates a room during a blackout at a residential building in Simferopol, Crimea November 24, 2015. REUTERS/Pavel Rebrov

SIMFEROPOL, Crimea (Reuters) - Power blackouts in Crimea orchestrated by anti-Russian saboteurs are stirring discontent a year and a half after Moscow seized the peninsula from Ukraine, threatening to chip away at the pro-Kremlin euphoria many Crimeans felt after annexation.

The blackouts - the result of pro-Ukrainian activists blowing up the electricity lines which supply Crimea in southern Ukraine over the weekend - are causing misery for the population of some 2 million and testing loyalty levels to Moscow.