Moscow has made a concerted effort to present the Crimean Tatars as simply a branch of Tatars who happen to live on the Russian-occupied peninsula and thus do not have the legitimate right to a separate national self-determination, an...
When the history of the 21st century is written, Vitaly Portnikov says, Russia’s occupation of Crimea “beyond any doubt will be among the most important,” not because of the Ukrainian peninsula itself but because of two other factors...
Many ethnic Russians who lived in Crimea before the Anschluss considered themselves more Russian than even those in Moscow, voted for pro-Russian parties and in 2014 welcomed the annexation by Russia. But in the years since, Andrey...
The possibility that Vladimir Putin will return two or more of the Kurile Islands the Soviet Union seized at the end of World War II in exchange for a peace treaty with Japan has an important lesson for the world about Crimea: Russians...
Mustafa Dzhemilev, who has been fighting for the rights of the Crimean Tatar nation for six decades against occupiers old and new, turns 75 today. He has lost none of his ability to diagnose the problems his nation faces or to inspire its...
Since the Russian occupation of Crimea began four years ago, the combination of its longtime residents being forced to leave and new people from Russia arriving means that 20 percent of the population consists of people who did not earlier...
Many commentators are suggesting that Vladimir Putin may seek “a new Crimea” to salvage his ratings with the Russian people, but Vitaly Portnikov says that he “doesn’t think that anyone in the Kremlin was thinking about ratings...
Today as they have done every August 30, the International Day for Remembering Those Who Have Disappeared, Crimean activists assembled in front of the Russian embassy in Kyiv to call attention to the 44 people who have been...
One of Vladimir Putin’s greatest advantages has been the willingness of others to accept his definition of what is occurring rather than describe things honestly be it the invasions of Georgia and Ukraine, the Anschluss of Crimea, or the...
The sacking of Bilyal Bilyalov as head of the Crimean Tatar Academic Musical-Dramatic Theater this week on trumped up charges is just the latest move by the Russian occupation forces to undermine and ultimately destroy the history and...
Is the conflict domestic or international? In December 2018, the Office of the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court in the Ukraine-related part of their “Report on Preliminary Examination Activities” has repeated the...
