Crimean Tatars Under Russian Occupation: An Updated Assessment

On the 71st anniversary of the forcible deportation of the Crimean Tatar people by Joseph Stalin, Carnegie hosted a roundtable conversation with Ukraine’s Charge d’Affaires to the United States Yaroslav Brisiuck, Irena Lasota, and Lilia Muslimova. Their remarks about the plight of the Crimean Tatars in the aftermath of Moscow’s annexation of Crimea were framed by a screening of “Crimea: March of the Tatars,” a video dispatch by VICE News about the challenges which the community has endured in the aftermath of last year’s dramatic events. Carnegie’s Andrew Weiss moderated.

Yaroslav Brisiuck

Yaroslav Brisiuck is charge d’affaires of Ukraine to the United States. He has been a member of the Ukrainian Ministry of Foreign Affairs since 2002.

Irena Lasota

Irena Lasota is co-founder and co-director of the Institute for Democracy in Eastern Europe. An opposition activist in communist Poland from 1981 to 1987, she was president of the Committee in Support of Solidarity.

Lilia Muslimova

Lilia Muslimova is a Crimean Tatar from the city of Simferopol. She serves as an assistant and spokesperson for Crimean Tatar leader Mustafa Dzemilev and experienced the Russian invasion firsthand. She is currently a Fulbright fellow at the Humphrey School of Public Affairs at the University of Minnesota.

Andrew S. Weiss

Andrew S. Weiss is vice president for studies at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and oversees Carnegie’s work on Russia and Eurasia. He served on the National Security Council staff during the Clinton administration