Russians are preparing to escalate their foreign policy by intensifying repression in temporarily occupied Crimea.
This was emphasized by the Head of the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar people, Refat Chubarov, in a comment to a Ukrinform correspondent.
“Recently, the repression and persecution of Crimean Tatars in Crimea have been active and ostentatious. This indicates that the Russians are preparing to escalate their foreign policy,” he said.
According to Chubarov, this is what “authoritarian regimes do before they want to start aggressive actions, either internally or externally.”
“Since everything is already suppressed internally (in Russia – ed.) and there are almost no protest movements, this does not rule out the possibility that the Russians are preparing to escalate their foreign policy. Perhaps this will be some kind of large-scale provocation against Russia’s other neighbors. Some experts say that this could be Estonia,” the politician noted.
As reported by Ukrinform, the occupiers have intensified their repression against the Crimean Tatars.
In October 2025, the former Head of the independent Muslim community “Alushta,” 57-year-old Lenur Khalilov, who was sentenced to 18 years in prison in the “Alushta group” case, Hizb ut-Tahrir, and released from prison in August this year due to poor health, was taken into custody again.
On the morning of October 15, the occupiers conducted searches in the homes of Crimean Tatars and detained four women: Esma Nimetulaieva, Nasiba Saidova, Elviza Aliieva, and Fevziie Osmanova. They are accused of “terrorism” for allegedly participating in the activities of the Islamic political party Hizb ut-Tahrir, which is banned in Russia but operates in other countries.
In the Bakhchysarai district of temporarily occupied Crimea, the occupiers conducted a search on the night of October 23 and detained visually impaired Oleksandr Sizikov, who was released from prison in May due to illness.
Photo: Volodymyr Tarasov, Ukrinform
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