Crimean authorities compile list of Russian 'enemies of the peninsula'
The Public Chamber of Crimea has put together a list of Russians who publicly do not recognize the peninsula’s status, and in so doing supposedly “incite hostility”. The list is published on the organization’s website.
The list, titled the “Crimean Dossier”, includes the authors Boris Akunin, Vladimir Voynovich and Lyudmila Ulitskaya, filmmaker and screenwriter Alexander Sokurov, musician Andrey Makarevich, actresses Liya Akhedzhakova and Ada Rogovtseva, actor Mikhail Efremov, prose writer and satirist Viktor Shenderovich, and TV presenter Ksenia Sobchak.
“These cultural figures, who have succumbed to anti-Russian propaganda, repeat the messages broadcast by the West on the supposedly illegal annexation of Crimea as if on carbon paper, thereby ignoring the Crimeans’ informed election in March 2014,” the social activists write. They emphasize that this “offends the inhabitants of the peninsula”.
The list also includes political figures from Crimea who have openly expressed their objection to the peninsula being recognized as part of Russia. Among them are Ukrainian MP Andriy Senchenko, Ukrainian Human Rights Commissioner Lyudmyla Denisova, who previously served as the Crimean Minister of Economy, former Crimean Prime Minister Serhiy Kunitsyn, and former
Commander of the Ukrainian Navy Serhiy Hayduk. In addition, Volodymyr Kazarin, rector of the Kyiv Tavrida National University and several Ukrainian journalists also feature on the list.
Russian actress Liya Akhedzhakova told RBC that she had “not succumbed to any propaganda” but simply believes that “one must not steal people’s territory”.
“We are not insulting anyone, but we think that what happened is an unlawful thing. And no matter how inspiring the propaganda is that we are enemies of the people and Russophobes, this is not true. I, my family, the people around me and whom I love, we want to conduct ourselves decently, but this is an act of indecent behavior. It is unpleasant for me that my beloved, my dear country and my beloved people have ended up behaving like indecent people,” the agency cites Akhedzhakova as saying.
The internationally recognized Ukrainian territory of Crimea was annexed by the Russian Federation in March of 2014 in the wake of the Ukrainian revolution. The Kremlin has faced international condemnation for its annexation of the Peninsula, leading many western countries to impose economic sanctions against Russia. In the United Nations, only Afghanistan, North Korea, Cuba, Nicaragua, Venezuela, and Syria recognize Crimea as a legitimate federal subject of Russia.