Paul Goble
Staunton,
April 2 – No Crimean Tatar media outlet could ever do as much harm to Russia’s
reputation and its ability to attract any members of that nation to its side as
Moscow’s decision to shut down ATR and other Crimean Tatar broadcasters and
publications already has, according to Anatoly Baranov, a Moscow commentator
who heads the Forum-MSK.org portal.
Indeed,
he argues, the Kremlin should recognize that now those opposed to Moscow will
become even more hostile and turn to the Internet as a source for news. And it
should “immediately close down” the Russian agency that took this
counterproductive step, a view with which it is almost impossible to disagree (forum-msk.org/material/news/10764932.html).
In
recent months, both Russian and Western media have devoted ever less attention
to the Russian Anschluss of Crimea, focusing instead on Vladimir Putin’s
aggression in the Donbas. But by this action, Moscow has led ever more people
to look at what is taking place on the occupied Ukrainian peninsula and to be
horrified.
Not only
international media and human rights watchdog organizations like Amnesty
International but also the OSCE and the European Union have denounced what
Moscow has done in this case, but also sparked intense criticism by individuals
and groups within Russia who had hewed to the Kremlin line.
Emblematic
of this reaction is an open letter from Ravil Gainutdin, the head of the
Council of Muftis of Russia (SMR) and the Muslim Spiritual Directorate (MSD) of
the Russian Federation, to Sergey Aksyonov, head of the Russian occupation in
Crimea, and Nikolay Nikiforov, Russia’s communications minister (dumrf.ru/upravlenie/documents/9144).
Gainutdin
writes that the shutting down of ATR and other media outlets in Crimea “is
becoming an enormous shock for the Crimean Tatar people and a big loss for its
culture” and carries with it “serious risks for the process of integration of
Crimean Tatars into the Russian political-legal and cultural-historical space.”
Moreover,
the Moscow mufti continues, these actions not only “can provoke colossal social
tensions in the Republic of Crimea” but also cause the international media to
devote more attention to the Crimean Tatar issue. Even more seriously, they can
lead to “the marginalization” of that nation and to the growth of “extremist”
organizations and movements.
And,
Gainutdin concludes, “the closure of ATR in the present-day geopolitical and
economic situation and under conditions of the intensification of foreign
pressure on the Russian Federation above all inflicts harm on the policy of our
President Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin, who has devoted enormous efforts for
the social-economic development of Crimea.”
Gainutdin’s
criticism from a loyalist position is certain to echo not only among Russia’s
millions of Muslims but also among others who are appalled by the increasing repression
by the Kremlin against the media in the Russian Federation, a reaction that
makes his words doubly troubling for Putin and his regime.
But the
more immediate consequences are beyond Russia’s borders: Moscow’s actions
against Crimean Tatar media have already sparked protests in Crimea, despite
the increasingly authoritarian rule of the occupation forces. But even more,
they have re-energized the leaders of the Crimean Tatar nation who have been
forced out of their homeland by Putin and his policies.
Yesterday,
Refat Chubarov, the head of the Mejlis who is now resident in Kyiv, said that
he is “one of those who is calling on everyone to be prepared for the worst,
for open war with Russia” because the conflict with that “enemy” cannot be
ended or “the threat” it poses to Ukraine eliminated until Crimea is returned
to Ukraine (regnum.ru/news/polit/1911331.html).
“Therefore,
for us,” he continued, “the war will be ended only when Crimea will be within
the Ukrainian state.”
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