In announcing the phone call between Putin and Michel, the Kremlin said that Russian President Vladimir Putin told European Council President Charles Michel on Wednesday (September 8) that the EU continues to discriminate against Crimean residents .
Russia annexed Crimea from Ukraine in 2014, triggering Western sanctions. The West and most parts of the world say that this territory belongs to Ukraine. Kiev hopes that the peninsula will return.
The Kremlin said in a statement: “People have noticed that the European Union continues to adopt discriminatory policies against residents of the peninsula.” reading, Did not provide more details.
Despite the efforts of some companies to circumvent sanctions, the EU has tried not to conduct business and has no communication links with occupied Crimea.
Earlier this week, a court in Crimea, annexed by Russia, ordered the detention of Crimean Tatar leader Nariman Dzhelyalov for two months on the grounds that he was suspected of participating in the gas pipeline. Attack. International fax News agency reported.
Over 40 people were detained over the weekend as they protested against the arrest of Dzhelyalov and four others outside the local office of the Russian Federal Security Service.
According to Interfax news agency, the criminal investigation against Dzhelyalov involved a damaged natural gas pipeline in a village near Simferopol on August 23.
Crimean Tatars were arrested over the weekend in Jereyalov, the former vice-chairman of the Parliament, the illegal representative body of the Crimean Peninsula, and were condemned by the European Union, the United States and Ukraine.
“The European Union believes that detention is politically motivated and illegal under international law.Peter Stano, the EU’s chief diplomatic spokesman, said in a statement.
“The EU does not recognize Russia’s law enforcement in Crimea and Sevastopol, and hopes that all Ukrainians who have been illegally detained will be released immediately,” he said, adding
Stano said that the EU also called on Russia to abide by its obligations under international law and stop violating the human rights of Crimean residents, as stated in the joint statement of the August International Crimea Platform Summit.
After the Russian army occupied the strategic Black Sea peninsula for seven and a half years, the international summit reaffirmed its commitment to lift the Crimean occupation.
The joint statement signed by all 46 summit participants, including 14 national leaders, emphasized the possibility of Ukraine regaining complete control of the peninsula.
Russia annexed Crimea from Ukraine in 2014, triggering Western sanctions. The West and most parts of the world say that this territory belongs to Ukraine. Kiev hopes that the peninsula will return.
Crimean Tatars, which account for nearly 15% of Crimea’s 2.3 million population, opposed Moscow’s takeover. Since 2014, an estimated 30,000 Tatars have fled Crimea.
In 2016, Moscow banned the main representative body of Crimean Tatars, the Parliament and some religious groups considered Islamic terrorist organizations, and strongly opposed accusations of discrimination against Crimean Tatars.
In the ruthless suppression by the Russian authorities, there have been more than one hundred political prisoners on the peninsula, some of whom have been sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment ranging from 12 to 18 years.
