Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a decree on the "rehabilitation" of the Crimean Tatar, Armenian, Bulgarian, German and Greek communities, who suffered retaliation by Joseph Stalin during and after the Second World War. Putin said that "as part of Crimea's integration into Russia", it must be ensured that the "historic rights" of the Tatars are "restored".

Tatars were forced into exile in 1944 by Stalinist USSR, being accused of having collaborated with Nazi Germany. Tatars began to return to Crimea in the 1980s. According to the 2001 census, Tatars are 12% of the population in Crimea.

The move is more symbolic than effective. Organizations representing the Tatar people (the Qurultay and the Mejlis) reject Russia's annexation of Crimea and, in any case, they demand "national-territorial" autonomy for the Tatars. But Russia is only willing to accept cultural, non-territorial, autonomy.

Putin's announcement comes at the same time that Mejlis announced that Tatar historical leader Mustafa Qirimoglu (aka Mustafa Djemilev) has been refused entry to the Russian Federation (and hence de facto also to Crimea) over the next five years. Qirimoglu has been notified by Russian border agents when the Tatar leader and Ukrainian MP was leaving Crimea for Kiev.

Mejlis rejects new Crimean constitution

And while Russia is advancing in the integration process of Crimea into the Federation, the Mejlis says it rejects Crimea's new constitution as approved two weeks ago by the Crimean Parliament. The new Constitution says that the peninsula is now a part of the Russian Federation. The Mejlis criticizes the text as it does not provide for any recognition to the Mejlis itself or the Qurultay, and believes that the drafting process has been held without legal guarantees, especially with regard to the participation of the Tatars. Similarly, the Mejlis regrets that the Constitution does not recognize the Tatars as the "indigenous people" of Crimea.

However, the Constitution does recognize Crimean Tatar as one of three official languages there (the other two being Russian and Ukrainian).