Five Crimean Tatar activists arrested by Russia amid murky claims of Ukrainian terror plot

Moscow has struggled to bring the minority Crimean Tatar population round to the idea of its 2014 annexation

A man holds and anti-Russian placard on Kyiv’s Independence Square in 2019 during a memorial for the 75th anniversary of the deportation of the Crimean population by the Soviet Union (AFP via Getty Images)

Tensions have once again flared between Russia and Ukraine along the fault line of Crimea – with Moscow claiming a terror attack on local gas pipelines, and Kyiv describing it as a smokescreen to hide a crackdown on the Ukraine-supporting Crimean Tatar population.

On Saturday, masked Russian agents arrested five prominent Crimean Tatar activists. The arrested included Nariman Dzhelyalov, the deputy chair of the Mejlis, the group’s now-banned consultative parliament, and Vladislav Esipenko, a freelance journalist.

At a court hearing in Simferopol on Monday, a judge announced pre-trial detention for the men would last until at least November. The men now face a maximum of five years in jail.

On Tuesday, the FSB, Russia’s security agency, elaborated Moscow’s claims in a statement released to several local media outlets. The men had been detained for roles in a supposed Ukrainian operation to blow up gas pipelines near Simferopol, they said. Each had been paid $2,000 for the operation, timed on the eve of Ukrainian Independence Day.

"We have ascertained that the diversion was organised by Ukrainian Military Intelligence in Kherson ... with the participation of the banned Mejlis organisation," the FSB statement read.

Local media later reported that all five men had admitted their guilt. By Tuesday noon, a TV channel associated with the Russian armed forces published a filmed confession of one of the accused, Asan Akhmetov, who asserted he had been "asked to do a bad thing with the gas pipe". Activists suggested the confessions were procured under torture or the threat of torture.

Russian has struggled to bring the Crimean Tatar population round to the idea of its 2014 annexation. The local 12 per cent minority retains a strong historic grievance over rule from Moscow, given that their entire population was deported to Central Asia on Stalin’s orders in 1944. Most only returned after the break up of the Soviet Union in the late 1980s.

Speaking to The Independent in 2015, Mustafa Dzhemilev, the long-time leader of the Crimean Tatars, said he rejected a personal approach from Vladimir Putin in 2014 to bless the Russian operation. The two men spoke for 40 minutes but agreed to disagree. “I told him our population would not welcome Russian occupation, since the last time it happened half our people perished,” Mr Dzhemilev said.

Speaking on Saturday, Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky drew a direct line between the latest arrests and a new diplomatic push to return the issue of Crimea to the international agenda.

Nariman Dzelyalov was among hundreds of VIP delegates of Ukraine’s new “Crimean Platform” initiative when it was launched in Kyiv on 23 August – the same day Russia accused the men of blowing up the gas pipeline. In the days afterwards, Moscow dismissed the initiative as an “unfriendly” talking shop, but it does appear to be irritated by a move that keeps pressure on the west to retain sanctions.

"The occupants in Crimea have once again turned to repressing the Crimean Tatar population, with more raids and arrests," Mr Zelensky said in a tweet. "This is simply how Russia reacts to the Crimean Platform."