Russian Media is Attempting to Censor Crimean Tatar Leaders Monday, February 15, 2016 10:13:00 AM

Recent information which has appeared in the media demonstrates that the Russian authorities responsible for media oversight, among which are Roskomnadzor and the Prosecutor General's Office, are trying to censor any discussion about the return of Crimea; especially when the leaders of the Crimean Tatars are the authors of such ideas.

Recently, Roskomnadzor sent notifications indicating that several unrelated media websites have been blocked. In particular, Roskomnadzor sent a letter to the editors of Apostrophe, stating that the page containing an interview with the leader of the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar people, Refat Chubarov, will be blocked if the interview is not removed from the website.

“On the evening on February 9th, the Russian Federal Agency for the Supervision of Communications, Information Technology and Mass Communications notified the Apostrophe news portal that it was in violation of the rules of information distribution in the Russian Federation. In particular, the Russian agency drew attention to an interview in which the Chairman of the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar people, Refat Chubarov, called for an open war against the Russian Federation. Roskomnadzor found this material to be extremist in nature and demanded that it be removed from the website within 24 hours after receiving the notice. Otherwise, access to the Apostrophe website in the Russian Federation would be restricted. Experts believe that such actions are a normal practice of the Russian secret police,” the Apostrophe editors said.

In his interview, Chubarov, who became an unwitting culprit of the offense, compared Roskomnadzor with a highway brigand, "The Russian state in this situation behaves itself exactly as a highway brigand. This bandit is saying, 'Either you stop telling the truth, or you will be in a lot of trouble.' He stands over you with a club and waits for your decision."

On the same day, Roskomnadzor sent a warning to the Ukrayinskaya Pravda newspaper. The letter also addressed statements made by the head of the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatars, in which he spoke about the possibility of an open conflict with Russia.

Earlier, Russia blocked the popular Crimean resource page Events of the Crimea. The editorship found out later that Russian officials had a problem with the statements made by the Crimean Tatars' leaders. However, this time it was not Chubarov, but a coordinator of the ‘civil blockade’ of the Crimea, . According to the explanation received from Roskomnadzor, the reasons for blocking the site Events of the Crimea in the Russian Federation were the "the interviews and video made by the coordinator of the 'civil blockade' of Crimea, Lenur Islyamov, in which the author calls to liberate the Crimea from the 'Russian invaders' with the help of the military, which means it contains calls for the violent overthrow of the constitutional system of the Russian Federation and violation of its territorial integrity."

It's obvious that for Roskomnadzor the statements of the leaders of the Crimean Tatars on how to return the Crimea and the suggestion of an open military conflict between Ukraine and Russia is a ‘red flag’, as well as information about the Right Sector and satirical videos about Putin.

On the one hand, not knowing the causes for the mass blocking of Ukrainian information resources, one would assume that it's a vendetta declared on anything alien to Russian media propaganda. But if we analyze the trends described above, it becomes clear: the massive cleansing of the online media space from any information about the Crimean Tatars, and, in particular, in the context of their appeal to take Crimea back has begun. And this, in turn, says that Russia is afraid of such a scenario.

The argument in favor of this theory is a series of high-profile arrests of the Crimean Tatars on the 11th and 12th of February by the occupational authorities. Along with the censorship of the media space the physical intimidation of active members of the ethnic group is being conducted. Everything indicates that the Kremlin just wants to remind Crimean Tatars that if they say or do anything to return the Crimea to Ukraine they will be punished – so say nothing. The Ukrainian media is being trained in the same way.

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