FSB Says Crimean Tatars Must Submit to Russian Rule, Face Prison, or Risk ‘Disappearance,’ Cemilev Says

Mustafa Cemilev, the leader of the Crimean Tatar national movement whom Russian authorities have banned from entering his homeland until 2019, says that the Russian security service has told him and by extension his nation that its members must submit to Russian rule, face prison, or, even more ominously, Paul Goble notes on Window on Eurasia.

Despite Vladimir Putin’s promises to the Crimean Tatars before the Moscow-orchestrated referendum Russia invoked as the basis of the Anschluss of the Ukrainian peninsula and the Russian president’s decree about the “rehabilitation” of the Crimean Tatars within Russia, the messages that Russian officials, both  Muscovite and local, are delivering are very threatening.

In recent comments, discussed in an article by Roman Chernyshev yesterday, Cemilev said that FSB officers have told his nation that it must obey, face prison, or be at risk of “disappearance,” an implicit suggestion that Moscow may be ready to expel the Crimean Tatars from their homeland a second time (news.liga.net/articles/politics/1534249-dzhemilev_fsb_predlagaet_moim_storonnikam_v_krymu_tri_varianta.htm).

Cemilev called on democratic forces in Russia to track what may happen next and not leave the Crimean Tatars to face the Russian special forces “one on one,” a situation that given Moscow’s attempts to impose a media blackout over this issue could entail the most tragic consequences.

windowoneurasia2.blogspot.com/2014/04/window-on-eurasia-fsb-says-crimean_29.html