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Crimea and Sevastopol

Crimean leader doubts ability of Mejilis leaders to besiege Crimea from sea

Lenur Islyamov, Crimea’s former vice-premier earlier said that activists were already preparing for besieging the Kerch Strait and would soon start a military operation against Crimea’s inhabitants

© Valeriy Matytsin/TASS

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SIMFEROPOL, December 4 /TASS/. Crimea’s Head Sergei Aksyonov expressed his doubts on Friday that the leaders of the Mejilis of Crimean Tatars, which is unregistered in Russia, would be able to impose a sea blockade of Crimea as he commented the threats issued by Crimea’s former Vice-Premier Lenur Islyamov, an organizer of the peninsula’s food blockade.

"Do they have a fleet"? Or are they planning to besiege Crimea on row boats?," Aksyonov told TASS.

On September 20, the deputies of Ukraine’s Verkhovna Rada (parliament), Mustafa Dzhemilev and Refat Chubarov, as well as Lenur Islyamov, Crimea’s former vice-premier and the owner of the ATR TV channel, imposed a food blockade on the peninsula. Mejilis activists and members of the Right Sector extremist movement, which is banned in Russia, are stopping trucks with Ukrainian food at the border with Crimea.

In a Radio Liberty interview, which Islyamov gave some time ago, he said that activists were already preparing for besieging the Kerch Strait and would soon start a military operation against Crimea’s inhabitants.

Crimean law enforcers are investigating several lawsuits against Islyamov: the first, filed on November 2, for calls to violate Russia’s territorial integrity; the second case was opened in connection with the peninsula’s power blockade on charges of sabotage under article 281 (part 2) of the Russian Penal Code. Court has recently arrested Islyamov’s property in Crimea.

Meanwhile, Sergei Menyailo, the governor of the federal city of Sevastopol, said last Tuesday that no one would be able to isolate Crimea.

"There will be no isolation of Crimea. We will not let that happen," the governor’s press secretary Kirill Moskalenko quoted his boss as saying.

Crimea’s Prime Minister Sergey Aksyonov blames Kiev for the blockade, which he believes can be lifted only after Ukraine ousts its incumbent President Petro Poroshenko.

"It is impossible to build any political relations with this crazy government (of Ukraine - TASS). I am convinced we will improve our relations with Ukraine and the border will open as soon as the incumbent president of Ukraine is ousted from power," Aksyonov said in an interview with TASS.

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Crimea and Sevastopol

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