Crimea has been a starting point of the Russian war against Ukraine. By dissecting the tumultuous history of Crimea, Cambridge-scholar Rory Finnin argues why returning Crimea to Ukrainian controle is the only path to a sustainable peace.

The Russian war against Ukraine began in 2014 with the appearance of mysterious ‘little green men’ – masked, unmarked soldiers – who suddenly took over Crimea. Now, the Americans seem willing to simply give up Crimea in negotiations with Russia. But history shows us that a Russian Crimea has no future. The idea of a ‘Russian Crimea’ is a colonial phantasm enforced by decades of suppression and ethnic cleansing of the Crimean Tatars.

Renowned British scholar Rory Finnin, expert on Ukrainian history, shows how a peace deal that makes Crimea Russian territory would lay the foundation for a future of further military escalation from the Kremlin. To understand why that is, we need to understand the history, culture and geography of the contested peninsula. Together with Alim Aliev, a human rights activist and journalist who is the Deputy Director General of the Ukrainian Institute, and researcher, PhD and co-curator of the Past / Future / Art memory culture platform art curator Oksana Dovgopolova, Rory Finnin will tell the tumultuous story of Crimea.

This programme is made in collaboration with Ukrainian Institute, Past / Future / Art, made possible by DutchCulture and is part of the Forum on European Culture 2025 in Amsterdam.

Programme maker: Merlijn Geurts

Moderator: Mirthe Frese

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