The Crimean Tatar Resource Center, in cooperation with the Open Dialogue Foundation (ODF), the Italian Federation for Human Rights(FIDU) and other 13 human rights organizations, have signed a letter to Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte. The appeal is related to the worrying Russian military presence on Italian soil, in the framework of Moscow’s “aids” to Italy during the COVID-19 outbreak.
The letter draws the attention of Italy's PM to the strategic interest of the military convoy sent by the Kremlin on March 22nd, 2020, at the Pratica di Mare airport following a phone call between President Putin and PM Giuseppe Conte. In an alarming operation led by the Russian Ministry of Defense in a NATO member country, Moscow sent military resources, including fifteen Ilyushin cargo planes and a team composed of a hundred military doctors and other military personnel from the government of the Russian Federation. And what's more alarming is that this convoy has been allowed to circulate "freely" on the soil of a NATO state and close to the military bases of the Alliance, exposing Italy to unknown intelligence operations.
Reliable sources report the extent (and risks) of the Russian operation involving military resources, which include fifteen Ilyushin cargo planes and a team composed of a hundred military doctors and other military personnel from Moscow under the leadership of the Russian Ministry of Defense. This mission raises concerns over the strategic interest of the military convoy sent by the Kremlin, which is given the opportunity to freely move within a NATO member country and close to the military bases of the Alliance, thus exposing to unknown intelligence operations. What's at stake is the future of the European project and the principle of international solidarity, as well the defense of liberal democracies from hostile foreign interference”,- the statement reads.
This is taking place even though the Russian Federation has been subjected to sanctions by the European Union due to the illegal occupation of the territories of Crimea and Donbas since March 2014. In these territories, where a war has been fought for six years, about 97 Ukrainian political prisoners and 200 war hostages, held in official and “unofficial” detention facilities, are exposed to the outbreak due to the lack of precautions.
In relation to this situation, the Crimean Tatar Resource Center, in conjunction with a number of human rights organizations have mobilized to impose further targeted sanctions on individuals operating on behalf of the government of the Russian Federation: the so-called Magnitsky sanctions, currently being discussed at the Italian parliament as well.
