Eskender Bariiev, the Head of the Board of the Crimean Tatar Resource Centre, member of Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar people, said in an interview with the Hromadske Radio, that Russian propagandists and collaborators will make a PR event out of the arrival of Russian President Putin to the occupied Crimea, although there are active preparations for military operations on the peninsula.
“They will make a whole PR event out of his visit, although I don’t know whether it is Putin or his doppelganger. They need to do this because the occupiers are actively digging in Crimea. They are already digging trenches around the perimeter of settlements in Crimea. Yesterday we received information that in the east of Crimea, for example, in the Sovietsky district, they are actively digging trenches along the perimeter,” Bariiev reported.
Eskender Bariiev notes that the collaborators and occupiers are demonstrating by such actions to all those who are now in Crimea, including Russian citizens who have illegally arrived there, that “they will defend the peninsula”. It is also “a demonstration to Western intelligence agencies of the readiness to fight the Armed Forces of Ukraine”.
“This is why Putin’s visit is crucial for the Russians, they want to show that Crimea is a completely safe place,” the expert highlighted.