Russian Nationalist Dugin Says EU Denied Him Entry
By RFE/RL
A prominent Kremlin-connected nationalist ideologue says he has been denied entry into the European Union after arriving at a Greek airport, despite not being on an EU sanctions list.
Aleksandr Dugin, the virulently anti-Western head of the Russia-based International Eurasian Movement, said on May 17 that Greek border guards refused to let him enter the country after he arrived at the airport in the city of Thessaloniki.
The border guards said he was stopped from entering the EU at the request of Hungarian authorities, Dugin told the conservative, religious-themed television channel Tsargrad, where he serves as editor in chief.
The United States last year slapped sanctions on Dugin, citing his affiliation with a group that Washington says has “actively recruited individuals with military and combat experience to fight on behalf of Moscow-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine.”
Dugin has courted both left-wing and right-wing political groups in Hungary, Greece, and other EU member states. He said he had traveled to Greece in connection with Russian President Vladimir Putin’s planned upcoming visit to the country.
He called his detention “rather strange,” saying that he had “freely traveled” in the EU in recent months.
“We are talking about an attempt to darken Russian-Greek relations,” Dugin said.
UN Calls On Russia To Respect Crimean Tatar Rights On Key Anniversary
By RFE/RL
The United Nations called on Russia to respect minority rights on the May 18 anniversary of Soviet dictator Josef Stalin's mass deportation of Tatars from Crimea in 1944.
The spokesman for the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Rupert Colville, said the persecution of Tatars has grown during two years of Russian annexation of the peninsula, marked by the intimidation, harassment, and jailing of Tatar officials.
"Since April 2014, Crimean Tatars have been subjected to arbitrary searches, seizure of books, and arrest," he said in a statement on May 17. "Last year, the authorities shut down a number of Crimean Tatar media outlets, and last week were reported to have also blocked Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty's Crimea news website."
Colville said Russia has "a duty to ensure the rights of minorities and indigenous peoples" and should immediately lift the ban on the Mejlis, the Tatars' legislative body.
During Stalin's reign, starting on May 18, 1944, some 200,000 Crimean Tatars were put on trains -- most of them in the space of just two days -- and sent to Uzbekistan. Thousands are believed to have died during the journey.
That concludes our live-blogging of the Ukraine crisis for Tuesday, May 17. Check back here tomorrow for more of our continuing coverage.
Speaking of Jamala, here's a video of her press conference today, courtesy of RFE/RL's Ukrainian Service:
Jamala Says Song More Artistic Than Political
Ukrainian Eurovision winner Jamala said her song was more about music and feelings than politics. Speaking at a news conference in Kyiv, she said she was "sad" it was being linked to politics. The song, entitled 1944, tells the story of the deportations of Crimean Tatars under Stalin -- and has been widely seen as a comment on Russia's 2014 annexation of the peninsula.
