Russia puts 5-year entry ban on head of Crimean Tatar Mejlis
SIMFEROPOL, Crimea. July 5 (Interfax) - The chairman of the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar People received a five-year ban on entering Russia on Saturday, one of his deputies said.
Refat Chubarov was stopped at the Chongar checkpoint during an attempt to enter Crimea from Ukrainian territory. "The prosecutor of the Republic of Crimea, Natalya Poklonskaya, first read out a warning to Refat Chubarov and then handed him a resolution banning him entry to the Russian Federation for five years," Mejlis Deputy Chairman Ahtem Chiygoz, who was present at the procedure, told Interfax.
The Mejlis would state its attitude to the ban at a session to be held within days, Chiygoz said. "Undoubtedly, the position will be utterly clear: such actions will not lead to any improvement in relations between the Crimean Tatar people and the authorities," he said.
The Mejlis, set up in the early 90s, was for a long time the most influential Crimean Tatar political organization. It had no official status but claimed the role of a governing body for the Crimean Tatars. It has been gradually losing its significance after mass-scale returns of Crimean Tatars from their places of deportation.
This spring, Russia slapped an entry ban on Mustafa Dzhemilev, a member of the Ukrainian parliament who was Chubarov's predecessor as Mejlis chairman.