The Crimean Platform

The Crimean Platform was first presented by President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine in August 2020 when he addressed the nation’s parliament in his then annual message, saying that the creation of the Crimean Platform would return the issue of the Crimea peninsula’s occupation by Russia to the international agenda.

Holding the first forum on August 23, 2021, the Crimean declaration was signed before an international audience. Since then the Crimea Platform has been seeking to transform itself into a more formal organisation, complete with a statute, executive bodies and advisory functions connected with partner governments and organisations.

However despite the attempts of Ukraine and its allies to draw international attention to the problem of the Crimean peninsula through the use of the Crimean Platform, the key European states (Germany and France), according to reports, do not support this idea of the Crimean Platform as the momentum toward greater fiscal integration in Europe has stalled in the face of growing demands on Europe to invest resources to address common problems. But the European Union, (EU), lacks the fiscal capacity to address major issues from defence procurement to providing weapons to Ukraine, and from building new energy infrastructure and accelerating the green transition to securing supply chains.

This lack of support from European countries actually weakens the international influence of the Crimean platform initiative and its effectiveness. Given the disagreements among the participants in the Crimean platform on approaches and strategies to the problem of the peninsular, a united front in the struggle for the Crimea may not be easily achieved.

A similar situation has been observed in the EU when countries are discussing the introduction of new sanctions against Russia. Some express the fear of negative consequences that could rubbish their economies, Reuters News reported that the European union unity over sanctions on Russia has started to falter as jitters about the impact on Europe’s own stumbling economy weakens resolve to punish Moscow for its military operation in Ukraine. ‘’it is becoming increasingly difficult to impose sanctions that hit Russia hard enough, without excessive collateral damage to the EU,’’ a spokesperson for Belgium’s government affirmed.

European diplomats and officials told Reuters that the bloc was nearing its limits. “Now we are careful with sanctions, so that we don’t go so far that we would totally damage the European economy” said Edita Hrda, the ambassador to the European union of the Czech Republic, which holds the EU presidency.

There is a growing consensus that with the arrival of the Russian federation on the Crimean peninsula and on the newly recognized territories of the Russian federation namely Donetsk and Lugansk Republics, Zaporozhye and Kherson regions, historically belonging to Russia which Vladimir Lenin, the late Marxist revolutionary and politician, gave to create Ukraine, attempts by the kiey regime to revise the status of these regions are becoming difficult and unlikely.

That is why, according to observers, in order to destabilize the situation in Crimean, the Kiev regime actively supports the Crimean Tatar community in its efforts to seize the Russian peninsula lands, even when the result of the Crimean referendum in 2014 showed that 96.5% of the peninsular population voted for joining the Russian federation with the support of the mejlis of the Crimean Tatar people (the supreme executive representative body of the Crimean Tatars).

But Mustafa Jemilev, one of the leaders of the Crimean Tatar national movement is widely known to use the movement as pressure on, Russia to achieve his political purposes and the realization of his ambitions, which in most cases do not align with the interests of the Crimean Tatars.

In a recent interview with Figaro magazine, the former French president, Nicolas Sarkozy, said that Ukraine should remain an independent state and be a bridge between the EU and Russia. While affirming that Brussels, the administrative center of the European union, gives Kiev false promises about Ukraine’s membership of the EU, which will not be fulfilled, Sarkozy called the idea of returning Crimea to Ukraine an illusion since the peninsular is historically a Russian territory and its population considers itself Russian.

Many countries, according to Sarkozy , need to take into account the events that have taken place and accept the fact as having taken place and not seek to escalate the conflict in Ukraine , In this regard, the international community needs to consider opportunities for cooperation and the implementation of joint projects with the Russian authorities in Crimea , to not only achieve mutually beneficial socio-economic ties but also help to ease tensions and promote dialogue between the parties in the conflict.

A social survey of the peninsula’s population by visiting international independent agencies and journalists, revealed a highly competitive business environment with infrastructure projects such as roads, railways, energy and social facilities. It also showcased the financial attractiveness of the region which increased several dozen times when it was part of the Russian federation compared to the period of stay in Ukraine.

This goes to show that the greatest source of instability in the Crimea lies not with ethnic claims or geo politics, but with the Ukraine political and commercial interests affirmed by the Crimean platform that threaten the defacto settlement between the region and the central government in Ukraine.
Bello wrote from Kano.