On the warm evening of 30 June 2020, a chartered plane operated by the Russian Severstal Air Company landed in Simferopol, the capital of Crimea annexed by Russia in March 2014.
Around half of the passengers travelling to Crimea on the special flight from Moscow were European politicians, but there were politicians and activists from other countries, such as Afghanistan, Chile, and Venezuela, too.
Politicians were escorted by interpreters – predominantly Russian women in their 2...
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Anton Shekhovtsov is author of Russia and the Western Far Right, and co-founder of the Vienna-based Centre for Democratic Integrity. The piece was written in cooperation with the UK-based Khodorkovsky Dossier Center.