Crimea

[Nemo1024]

Russia, as always, is keeping the doors for diplomacy and dialogue open:

Russia allows for unofficial visit of PACE delegation to Crimea
http://www.rt.com/politics/311246-russia-allows-for-unofficial-visit/

A senior State Duma MP has said that Russia would look into possibility of the visit to Crimea by the head of PACE’s Social-Democratic caucus, Andreas Gross, albeit not within the remit of the Russia-PACE dialogue.

Aleksey Pushkov, chair of the lower house Committee for International Relations, told TASS that after Russian delegation withdrew its participation in PACE in protest of the sanctions imposed on it by this body, any official visits through PACE channels have become impossible.

However, Pushkov noted that Russian parliamentarians had not lost the contacts with their European colleagues.

“If Andreas Gross gathers a group of MPs representing not the Parliamentary Assembly, but their own national parliaments, from one or several nations, in this case, I think, this issue can be discussed,” he said.

Pushkov added that the visits of European politicians to Crimea was a mark of a new, more democratic approach to the choice of the Crimean people as earlier Europe had de facto refused the republic the right to choose their fate during what could be described as a coup in Kiev.

“Lawmakers from European countries who have already visited Crimea and who will go there in future are doing this to communicate with the people and form an impression about local thoughts and inclinations,” Pushkov told reporters.

At the same time, the leaders of European politics deliberately view the problem only from Kiev’s positions and forget about the fact that the population of the Crimean Republic amounts to 2.5 million who must have the right to express their opinion and determinate the fate of their country, he stated.

Pushkov said that European lawmakers who have already visited Crimea could be seen as protectors of traditional democratic values as European politicians have always emphasized the necessity to listen to ordinary people rather than governments alone. In addition, he expressed hope that visits to the region help to defuse the political crisis that emerged in connection of the region’s accession into the Russian Federation.

On July 23-24, a delegation of French lawmakers headed by MP Thierry Mariani visited Crimea and met with the head of the republic as well as with ordinary citizens. When the visit was completed, Mariani told reporters that he and his colleagues found the people in the region to be free and happy, especially about the fact that they did not have to face the same situation as the people in the war-torn southeastern regions of Ukraine that immediately border the Crimea.

The French lawmaker also said that in his opinion there were no grounds to keep the EU sanctions against Russia in place....

Here is more about the French visit:

Most Crimeans ‘happy to be back in Russia’ – head of French delegation to peninsula
http://www.rt.com/news/310737-crimea-peaceful-french-mp/

The Crimean people “seem happy to be back in Russia,” said the deputy of the French National Assembly at a press conference in Moscow on Saturday, after paying a two-day visit to the region. The French delegation confirmed Crimea is a peaceful region.

A delegation of French lawmakers visited Crimea on July 23-24.

MP Thierry Mariani, who led the group of 10 politicians, said the citizens of Crimea were “reassured” they “don't have to face the same situation as the people who live in the regions of Lugansk and Donetsk” – the eastern areas of Ukraine devastated by war waged by the Kiev authorities against the rebels there.

Also:

Italian lawmakers announce plans for Crimea visit in October
http://www.rt.com/politics/311052-italian-lawmakers-announce-plans-of/

A group of Italian MPs have decided to follow the example of their French colleagues to pay a personal visit to the Crimean Republic in order to get firsthand information on people’s lives and the political situation on the ground.

The organizer of the visit, MP Manlio Di Stefano, told Russian business daily Kommersant that the delegation would include between eight and 10 parliamentarians from the Five Star Movement, known for its Euroskeptic and anti-establishment stance.

Di Stefano also said that the delegation would be headed by a member of the parliamentary Committee for Foreign Relations, Alessandro di Batista, and that they had received an invitation from Russian MP Andrey Klimov, a member of the Foreign Relations Committee of the State Duma.

It seems Europe is starting to get tired of being pushed around by USA...

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[Litejavichu]

I hope everything goes well for the tranquility of the people who live there

[Nemo1024]

An interesting development from Crimea:

Tatars living in Crimea wrote a petition to Natalia Poklonskaja, asking to be protected from impositions, coming from the former leaders of Mjelis (Dzhemilev and Chubarov). The address was delivered in the days, when the so-called Crimean Tatar Congress is being conducted in Ankara

Poklonskaja said:

I have received a collective appeal of the Crimean Tatars with a request to protect them from the statements coming from Dzhemilev, Chubarov, and so that these representatives would leave them alone. If we take into consideration such treatment, and they are not isolated, it can be concluded that the Crimean Tatars do not accept neither Chubarov nor Dzhemilev, on the contrary - these people are already acting as irritants among the Crimean Tatar population

http://tass.ru/politika/2159854

Given Natalia Poklonskaja's strong reputation as an incorruptible prosecutor, who was a thorn in the side of the Kiev-Ukrainian mafia, I have no reasons to doubt authenticity of the above statement.


This "Crimean Tatar" congress in Turkey is basically a farce conducted without Crimean Tatars. Only a handful of representatives travelled there from Crimea, mainly Dzhemilev's closest people and those, who were receiving Western grants while Crimea was under Ukrainian rule, said Ruslan Balbek, vice-prime minister of Crimea (a Tatar himself) :
http://ria.ru/world/20150801/1157736420.html


Ouch. Renegade Tatars in Turkey decided to form Muslim battalions in Ukraine:
http://ria.ru/world/20150802/1159602024.html
Looks like IS is slowly spreading North.

[Nemo1024]

Lithuania is going out of its way to be a US bootlicker, even breeching prior EU agreements.

Russian citizen, who lives in Kaliningrad was denied transit visa (it's treated as Schengen visa) on the grounds that in his passport, issued in December 2013, states his place of birth as "Crimean Republic, Russia" (well, it would be if he was born before Khrushov's illegal transfer of Crimea tu Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic). They refused the visa saying that they doubt the authenticity of the passport. Earlier it was stated by EU that visiting of Crimea would not affect issuing of Schengen visas to Russian citizens

http://www.gazeta.ru/politics/news/2015/08/06/n_7439277.shtml

[Rassah]

Good to see that Russia is giving Crime and so many freedoms that they are actually "allowing" someone to travel there. As opposed to, I don't not, just allow people to come and go as their please.

[Nemo1024]

Today is a National Holiday in Russia - the Day of the State Flag of the Russian Federation.

Crimea received a gift from Mexico - a Russian tricolour measuring 500m² and weighing 100kg, made of silk. The flag was sent from Mexico via New-York, Frankfurt-am-Main and Moscow. It was unfurled on the central Lenin Square in Simferopol.

http://ren.tv/novosti/2015-08-22/krymchane-razvernuli-100-kilogrammovyy-trikolor-rf




Better Late Than Never: West Starting to Accept Crimea as Part of Russia
http://sputniknews.com/analysis/20150821/1026013000/crimea-russia-ukraine-europe.html

Member of European Parliament Aymeric Chauprade said he considers the events that transpired on the peninsula in 2014 as a historical reunification of Crimea with Russia.

The politician said he believes that this tendency will continue to improve, and that he considers the events that transpired on the peninsula in 2014 as a historical reunification of Crimea with Russia.

"In my opinion, that event was doubly legitimate," Chauprade said. "It was legitimate from a historical standpoint, considering how Crimea was a part of Ukraine for a relatively short period of time. It was also legitimate in terms of elections because there was a referendum regarding the issue, a referendum that I attended as one of the few international monitors who observed the event. During that referendum, which was marked by a high voter turnout, 97% of voters supported the peaceful reunification with Russia. And I believe that eventually all honest, unbiased and free parliamentarians will realize that the future of Crimea is intrinsically linked with Russia."

...

"Crimean Tatars comprise about 8-10% of Crimea's population and their participation in the referendum wasn’t exactly active. Still, you can't say that the majority of Tatars were against the reunification with Russia," Chauprade said. "There were definitely attempts to manipulate the segments of the Crimean Tatar population that are most susceptible to the influence of Islamic ideas that are often employed by the US and Turkey. We’ve seen how the US and Turkey attempted to use them just like in the Caucasus region or in Central Asia. Or like in Xinjiang, where the US and Turkey seek to manipulate the Uyghurs in a similar fashion."


"As a historian and a political scientist I have a habit of doing a comparative study when reviewing some historical issue," Chauprade explains. "I worked on the issue of Chechnya and I remember how the US played a pivotal role in arming the Chechen rebels since the early 90s. Now we see the same thing happening in other parts of the world like in the Middle East. The Islamic State of today was born thanks to the US policy of using Islamism to advance its interests, and it resulted in the destabilization of nation-states. If we want to improve international stability, we must help reinforce the nation-states. Russia upholds this perception of international law, to stabilize the nation-states against all these destabilizing games the US plays with Islamism and mafias. And when you consider the Crimean issue, not to mention other important geopolitically important regions, one must always remember the dangerous and destabilizing games that the US plays behind the scenes."
...

[ummina]

yuhuuuuu..... Crimea is a centre of pro-Russian sentiment, which can spill into separatism. The region - a peninsula on Ukraine's Black Sea coast - has 2.3 million people, a majority of whom identify themselves as ethnic Russians and speak Russian.
The region voted heavily for Viktor Yanukovych in the 2010 presidential election, and many people there believe he is the victim of a coup - prompting separatists in Crimea's parliament to vote for joining the Russian Federation and a referendum on secession.

[tonycamp]

the tension nervous into crimea will burst a bit into the scar tissue hummed side for war cause putin needs the gas for winter

[Nemo1024]

the tension nervous into crimea will burst a bit into the scar tissue hummed side for war cause putin needs the gas for winter

Um, do you even understand what you wrote here? And which language was that in? 

[Nemo1024]

The 5th annual Koktebel Jazz Party in Crimea was a success, despite Ukraine issuing a sanctions warning to all foreign performers attending it. Really, who cares about any warnings (or anything those coup-installed criminals say) coming from Kiev these days...

http://en.koktebel-jazz.ru/

http://ren.tv/node/41262

The organiser is Russian journalist Dmitrij Kiseljov, whose truthful and poignant reporting EU, USA and Canada are trying to silence by sanctions.

[bryant.coleman]

The 5th annual Koktebel Jazz Party in Crimea was a success, despite Ukraine issuing a sanctions warning to all foreign performers attending it. Really, who cares about any warnings (or anything those coup-installed criminals say) coming from Kiev these days...

Lol... sanctions by Ukraine? A few months ago, they issued sanctions to a few foreign vessels, after they docked in the Crimean port of Sevastopol. But seriously, who cares about the Ukrainian sanctions? The economy is contracting by around 20% per year, and the average wages have dropped to around $50 per month. In two years time, Ukraine will be even worse than Somalia.

[Nemo1024]

Found a new news site in English:

And here's a related article from it:

Kiselev expressed gratitude for the courage of the musicians who came to Koktebel
http://news.rin.ru/eng/news///127004/1//

The founder of the Koktebel Jazz Party, the General Director of MIA "Russia today" Dmitry Kiselev expressed gratitude for the courage of the musicians who came to the Festival in Crimea.

"Without the courage of musicians who came here from all over the world, from five continents, it (the festival - ed.) would be impossible. For this reason, we we send you all our thanks and our warm Koktebel salute, " said Kiselev in the beginning of the final concert of the festival on Sunday, and thanking those who supported the event, coming at him every year since 2003.

...

[Nemo1024]

Crimean Tatars launch a national television channel "Millet", which will be transmitted in Russia, Turkey, and worldwide. The thing is, this time it's the "wrong", not US-granted, Crimean Tatars doing the transmissions, so Ukraine already announced that they will be... umm... jamming the satellite signals.

http://www.tvc.ru/news/show/id/75544

 

[Nemo1024]

A previously highly-politicised by Ukraine murder case of two Crimean Tatars took an interesting turn.
The accused is a Ukrainian citizen and the murder was committed on domestic grounds - over a woman. Even the Crimean Tatar extremist organisation Mjelis acknowledged it:

http://www.vz.ru/news/2015/8/30/763999.html

Also in this news - 450 Crimean Tatars - a half of those who last year left Crimea under the influence of anti-Russian propaganda, have returned home and are being assisted in getting Russian citizenship.

[XEPBAM]

Ukrainian & Crimean Tatar pushed out of schools in Russian-occupied Crimea

18 months after Russia invaded and annexed Crimea, not one class of the over 18 thousand children beginning school on Sept 1, will be with instruction in Ukrainian.  Even in traditionally Crimean Tatar schools, students now study in either Crimean Tatar or Russian, with Russian predominating. The occupation regime’s education minister Natalya Goncharova claims that this is all determined by parental demand.  Parents, and Crimean Tatar commentators speak of serious pressure on parents.  Other methods are also being applied, including the lack of textbooks for children to study in Crimean Tatar.

http://khpg.org/index.php?id=1441456761

[bryant.coleman]

Ukrainian & Crimean Tatar pushed out of schools in Russian-occupied Crimea

18 months after Russia invaded and annexed Crimea, not one class of the over 18 thousand children beginning school on Sept 1, will be with instruction in Ukrainian.  Even in traditionally Crimean Tatar schools, students now study in either Crimean Tatar or Russian, with Russian predominating. The occupation regime’s education minister Natalya Goncharova claims that this is all determined by parental demand.  Parents, and Crimean Tatar commentators speak of serious pressure on parents.  Other methods are also being applied, including the lack of textbooks for children to study in Crimean Tatar.

http://khpg.org/index.php?id=1441456761

As per the latest Crimean census (conducted in 2014), 84.16% of the residents of the Crimean Federal District uses Russian as a home language. So it is no surprise that Russian is the preferred language in the Crimean schools. Still, it is possible to study mostly or entirely in the Crimean Tatar or Ukrainian languages.

Now compare this situation to that in Ukraine. Russian language is almost completely excluded from the schools in Ukraine, and ethnic Russian children are not given the right to learn the Russian language. Even in provinces such as Kharkov (where 90% of the population is not fluent in Ukrainian), Russian is under a de facto ban in the schools.

[Nemo1024]

Thank you, XEPBAM, for bringing forth this excellent sample of anti-Russian propaganda, which utilises perversion and mis-representation of truth.

Ukrainian & Crimean Tatar pushed out of schools in Russian-occupied Crimea

18 months after Russia invaded and annexed Crimea, not one class of the over 18 thousand children beginning school on Sept 1, will be with instruction in Ukrainian.  Even in traditionally Crimean Tatar schools, students now study in either Crimean Tatar or Russian, with Russian predominating. The occupation regime’s education minister Natalya Goncharova claims that this is all determined by parental demand.  Parents, and Crimean Tatar commentators speak of serious pressure on parents.  Other methods are also being applied, including the lack of textbooks for children to study in Crimean Tatar.

http://khpg.org/index.php?id=1441456761

Let me first address two fragments, before I put this piece into a historical and statistical perspective.

Even in traditionally Crimean Tatar schools, students now study in either Crimean Tatar or Russian

Crimean Tatars have their own language - Tatar, which they study. Why would they want to study an artificial language, like Ukrainian, which Even Poroshenko has difficulties with and falls back to Russian off-camera?

including the lack of textbooks for children to study in Crimean Tatar

This contradicts the quote above. Do they study Tatar or do they not? Lack of textbooks does not logically preclude studying of the language.  But the reason for lack of textbooks is quite obvious: during Ukrainian rule, Tatar was not an official language, and was not promoted by Ukraine.

Now, on to the historical perspective.

Despite 60 year of Ukrainian occupation, Crimea was never truly Ukrainian. NOT learning Ukrainian was one of the few silent protest forms that Crimeans had at their disposal. Anyone, who has lived any length of time in Crimea, can attest that it could go a long time between one heard Ukrainian speech in the streets of Crimea - and that came predominantly from Ukrainian tourists.

So the following quote is true:

education minister Natalya Goncharova claims that this is all determined by parental demand

More so, Russian was and remains the majority language in Crimea, with Tatar being a minority, and Ukrainian being a minority of that. Still all three languages have official status.

Under Ukrainian occupation that was not the case. Despite many requests, Kiev systematically denied Russian language the status of the official language in Crimea in their effort to forcefully Ukranise the peninsular.

And finally take a look at the language distribution and statistics:

The percentage of people, stating Russian as their mother tongue:


Support for Russian as an official state language:


Geography of requests done in Ukrainian language:


Regions that have local officially state status of Russian language. Can you see why Crimea sailed away, correlating this map with the previous ones?

Now compare this situation to that in Ukraine. Russian language is almost completely excluded from the schools in Ukraine, and ethnic Russian children are not given the right to learn the Russian language. Even in provinces such as Kharkov (where 90% of the population is not fluent in Ukrainian), Russian is under a de facto ban in the schools.

So true, Bryant, but Ukrainian overseas masters don't want to notice that. By their logic, if injustice is directed against Russians, then it's completely fine.

[bryant.coleman]

In one of the maps which Nemo posted above (percentage with Russian as a mother tongue), it is clear that the Ukrainian authorities are trying to over-estimate the number of the Ukrainian speakers, and underestimate the number of Russian speakers. The census authorities interpreted "mother tongue" as the language spoken by the parents or the "original language" of the ethnic group (which is once again a wrong, as mother tongue of the Eastern Ukrainians is Russian, and not Ukrainian). So in provinces such as Poltava (where around 90% of the population is mainly Russian speaking) we have the Russian percentage at just 9%. Also, speakers of Surzhyk were added with the numbers for Ukrainian.

As per the census authorities, 90% of the Poltavans speak Ukrainian. But you will be lucky, if you find a single person fluent in that language, in any of the major urban areas.

[Souldream]

Ukrainian & Crimean Tatar pushed out of schools in Russian-occupied Crimea

18 months after Russia invaded and annexed Crimea, not one class of the over 18 thousand children beginning school on Sept 1, will be with instruction in Ukrainian.  Even in traditionally Crimean Tatar schools, students now study in either Crimean Tatar or Russian, with Russian predominating. The occupation regime’s education minister Natalya Goncharova claims that this is all determined by parental demand.  Parents, and Crimean Tatar commentators speak of serious pressure on parents.  Other methods are also being applied, including the lack of textbooks for children to study in Crimean Tatar.

http://khpg.org/index.php?id=1441456761

As per the latest Crimean census (conducted in 2014), 84.16% of the residents of the Crimean Federal District uses Russian as a home language. So it is no surprise that Russian is the preferred language in the Crimean schools. Still, it is possible to study mostly or entirely in the Crimean Tatar or Ukrainian languages.

Now compare this situation to that in Ukraine. Russian language is almost completely excluded from the schools in Ukraine, and ethnic Russian children are not given the right to learn the Russian language. Even in provinces such as Kharkov (where 90% of the population is not fluent in Ukrainian), Russian is under a de facto ban in the schools.

All this shit about Russian langage has only been used by propagandist... to have an apologise to put the mess...

Most of Ukrainian speak Russian / Ukrainian and had never any problem ... Is Ukrainia belong to Russia ? No ...  And anyway who care about Russian langage ...

But communist way like to force to apply ... Explain us ... so why all country inside the CCCP .... in school , the second langage was forced to be Russian ?

Where you go with Russian ?? Nowhere ... Where you go if you learn English / Spain or French ... ? 75% of globe....

Anyway now with the last laws voted in Ukraina ..... PoutinoGaz is blocked to make East annexion.... and i want to see now really how he will escape about all this shit ... during this time ... crisis continue to hit massively Russia ... but of course ... more easy to deny .

If you come to tell me that this is worse in Europe with immigrant ... Germany accepted them to get new workers as brith is lowering too fast... and need 300.000 workers.... not like in Russia ... how much jobs lost since the Crimea crisis ?? I mean real job ... not the fake one like the build of Sotchi where 75% of workers had never been paid ... or dissappear ... or kidnapped to work for mafia group LoL ...

And Poutine is no nice for their citizen ... yes .. where are the laws against the corruption Hahahaha in the pocket of Poutine ... more corruption = more power ... as money has more value ... bigger the corruption = more easy to keep people in your pocket !

[XEPBAM]

3 Ukrainian soldiers disappeared near Crimean border

On Friday night, three Ukrainian soldiers, who serve near the border between Ukraine and Crimea, have disappeared during their free time off the base. Their disappearance may be connected to two cars that reportedly illegally entered Ukraine from the occupied peninsula that night. Their disappearance is being investigated.

Aksyonov barred from entering China

The self-proclaimed head of Crimea Sergei Aksyonov and official Crimean delegation were unable to take a part in Beijing International Economic Forum due to the Western sanctions. Chinese authorities refused to let them enter China, while Chinese state companies are not willing to work with Crimean companies, one of forum’s organizers said.

http://krymsos.com/en/news/55edadb48e94e/