Ukrainian Political Studies Expert: Security Service Should Check Activity of Orthodox Camp

A Ukrainian political studies expert, Oleksii Haran, stated that the Security Service of Ukraine should check the activity of the Orthodox camp Crimea-Sich [Host]. He stressed that there are serious grounds to believe that "it involves attempts to stir up inter-ethnic and inter-religious conflicts in Crimea."

Haran noted that according to the mass media, as the training of the camp participants is conducted near places which are holy for the Crimean Tatars, the camp might have been established "to resist attacks of Islamists." The expert stressed that paramilitary formations are prohibited in Ukraine.

"Instead of checking the activity of the Ukrainian Catholic University in Lviv or the International Renaissance Foundation, the Security Service should pay attention to the possible activity of such groups in Crimea," noted Haran.

The international Orthodox camp Crimea-Sich was founded by Russian Cossacks from Taganrog and Ukrainians from Zaporizhzhia" and was opened in the end of the summer in the neighbourhood of the Eksi-Kermen plateau near Bakhchisarai. Schoolchildren of 10-18 years of age from Russia, Ukraine and Belarus are taught there to shoot submachine guns and to use the Kadochnikov system of hand-to-hand fighting.