Russian propagandists to visit occupied Crimea to "explain" events on peninsula – Chubarov

Chairman of the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar People, former Member of Parliament of Ukraine Refat Chubarov says 15-20 Russian propagandists will go on a tour of temporarily occupied Crimea soon to "explain" developments on the peninsula.

"There are several messages the Russian occupiers are trying to actively propagate in the minds of the international community. They do it around the clock... About 15-20 leading 'journalists' of Russia will be brought to Crimea one of these days. They will make such a 'tour' across Crimea to explain once again, as they say, what has been happening in Crimea," he said during an online briefing about the political persecution of the Mejlis leaders by the Russian occupying administration.

In those messages, the "journalists" will claim the Mejlis is allegedly "an extremist organization, and therefore it is only prohibited," while the Mejlis leaders and leading Crimean Tatar politicians are "extremists and terrorists," and allegedly therefore criminal cases have been initiated against them, Chubarov said.

"The third message is the following: 'We are not fighting the Crimean Tatars, we are only trying to remove those of them who are terrorists and extremists,'" he said.

According to the Mejlis leader, these are only three messages among many others that Russia is trying to "hammer" into the heads of Western European politicians and the international community in general, thereby complicating their understanding of the events in Ukraine and Crimea.

Read alsoRussia triples military presence in Crimea after annexation – MFARussian occupation of Crimea: Background

• Russia annexed Ukraine's Crimea in March 2014 after its troops had occupied the peninsula. An illegal referendum was held for Crimeans to decide on accession to Russia. De-facto Crimean authorities reported that allegedly 96.77% of the Crimean population had voted for joining Russia.
• On March 18, 2014, the so-called "agreement on the accession" of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol to Russia was signed in the Kremlin.
• The West did not recognize the annexation in response to which sanctions against Russia were introduced.
• Ukraine's parliament voted to designate February 20, 2014, as the official date when the temporary occupation of Crimea began.