Ukraine protests Czech leader hosting pro-Kremlin Tatar

The Ukrainian embassy in Prague on Thursday criticised Czech President Milos Zeman after learning he had hosted a representative of pro-Kremlin Tatars from Crimea, which was annexed by Russia in 2014.

Loyal to Moscow unlike most other Crimean Tatars, the Kyrym Birligi (Crimean Unity) group described Zeman as “a European politician sympathising with the democratic choice of Crimea’s citizens” on its Facebook page.

The pro-Russian, pro-Chinese Zeman had slammed the annexation of Crimea by Russia as “illegal” in 2017, but he is also known for his close ties with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

The Tatar group posted photos of its leader Tamila Bezazieva at the Prague Castle, Zeman’s seat, at a party held Monday on the 101st anniversary of the Czechoslovak state which split into the Czech Republic and Slovakia in 1993.

In one of the photos, Bezazieva poses with Andrej Babis, the populist billionaire Czech prime minister.

“Kyrym Birligi really appreciates that its existence has been noticed on the international level,” the group said.

Ukraine’s embassy decried the invitation to Kyrym Birligi as “another provocation seeking to make legitimate Russia’s unlawful attempt to annex Ukraine’s sovereign territory.”

“Playing around with occupiers seems particularly cynical at a time when… hundreds of Crimean Tatars experience persecution, repression, torture or are physically liquidated by the occupier administration,” it said.

Crimean Tatars were deported en masse to Kazakhstan by Joseph Stalin during World War II and many have drawn comparisons between that event and their current treatment by Russian authorities.

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