On Saturday, May 3, Russian OMON spetsnaz forces, together with the so-called Crimean “police”, prevented Mustafa Dzhemilev from entering the Crimea.

Around 5 thousand Crimean Tatars arrived at Armyansk on the border between Kherson oblast and the Crimea early on Saturday morning. Many had tears in their eyes as they greeted the veteran leader of the Crimean Tatars a day after he was stopped by the Russian authorities in Moscow from travelling to Simferopol in the Crimea. He was informed that this was in accordance with a five year ban on his entry to the Russian Federation. With the Crimea having been annexed by Russia, this ban now includes Mustafa Jemiliev’s homeland, Jemiliev called the ban on his entry to the Crimea “the zone of Russian democracy”.

Several thousand CrimeanTatars came right up to the checkpoint, and then formed a corridor to enable Jemiliev to cross into the Crimea. The Crimea News Agency reports that the acting interior minister, Sergei Abisov arrived at the border and told those present that Mustafa Jemiliev would not be allowed to enter.

In speaking with the head of the Mejlis, Refat Chubarov, Abisov claimed that there had been information in the press about the ban on Jemiliev entering the Russian Federation for 5 years and that Jemiliev himself had received this document.

The dishonesty is astounding. The ban was reported on April 22, yet by the following day high-ranking people in both Russia and the Crimea were claiming that the document presented to Mustafa Jemiliev had been a fake.

The ban, as we see,