On Thursday, May 21, Russian Federation initiated an informal video conference of the UN Security Council according to the Arria formula, taking into account the coronavirus pandemic. The declared theme was “The situation with human rights in Crimea”. What goals does the Russian Federation pursue by initiating such events?
1. To demonstrate to the international community that after the annexation of Crimea by Russia, there is no violation of human rights, the right to freedom of speech, conscience, and religion, and there is no ethnic discrimination. To this end, they engaged a journalist-propagandist Alexander Makar, “deputy” of the Bakhchisaray “City Council” Ervin Musaiev, “deputy” of “head” of “DUMK” Esadullah Bairov, and “head” of the so-called Ukrainian community of Crimea Anastasia Gridchina.
2. To create a picture for Russian citizens and residents of the occupied Crimea that there are no problems in the context of the coronavirus pandemic: Russia holds meetings with the UN Security Council with the participation of Crimean collaborators, albeit according to the formula of Arria, hoping that no one will realize that these participants could not get to the meeting physically due to sanctions;
3. Of course, this is Russia's response to the UN Security Council meeting by the Arria formula “for Crimea” on March 6, 2020, the meeting initiated by Ukraine, the USA, Estonia, Great Britain, France, Germany, and others.
4. And of course, to create a platform to demonstrate happy Crimean Tatars and Ukrainians ahead of the meetings of the UN ICJ and the ECHR in the case “Ukraine v. Russia”.
Eskender Bariiev,
Head of the Board of the Crimean Tatar Resource Center,
Member of Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar people