Israel/Palestine

Russian settlements get a pass

Kontorovich says his study is the first to examine Russia’s settlement polices in the parts of Ukraine and Georgia which it occupies.

It found, for example, that some 50,000 outsiders have settled in Crimea in the first two years of Russian occupation, roughly half of them Russians, the rest from other post-Soviet states or third countries. There are also efforts to force non-Russian minorities, including Ukrainians and Tartars, to leave Crimea.

“A very significant number of settlers have been moving to Crimea, attracted in part by Russian economic incentives. There is also a not particularly successful, but highly deliberate, settlement enterprise in occupied Georgia,” the study found. “Both of these enterprises appear to involve purposeful efforts to change the demographic composition of the territory.”

“Neither of these efforts has attracted any international interest or scrutiny, despite the high profile of the occupations within which they take place,” it said. “None of these efforts have been described as an Art. 49(6) violation by an actor outside the occupied states [Georgia and Ukraine].”