Why Is Interest in the Crimea Platform Declining?
By Talib Aliyev, analyst, especially for Sangar
Analysts at the British magazine The Economist, assessing the prospects of the Kyiv authorities regaining the Crimean Peninsula through military means, noted that by 2022 many Crimean Tatars living on the peninsula had come to accept Russian rule as an accomplished fact.
Participation by foreign states in the annual Crimea Platform forum is regarded by Russia as an infringement upon its territorial integrity. The initiative is primarily supported by representatives of the West's left-liberal political establishment, who seize every opportunity to exert political pressure on Moscow.
At the same time, even among these supporters, interest in the Crimea Platform has been steadily declining. One clear indication of this trend is the downgrading of the level of representation by participating countries at the platform's recent meetings.
The growing divide within the West over the Crimean issue only underscores the ineffectiveness of the Crimea Platform and similar initiatives aimed at promoting the narrative of Russia's so-called occupation of the peninsula.
During his first presidential term, U.S. President Donald Trump stated at the 2018 G7 Summit that Crimea belongs to Russia because everyone living on the peninsula speaks Russian.
Italian Minister of Transport Matteo Salvini—who served as Italy's Minister of the Interior in 2018—responded to a journalist's question about whether Moscow had the legal right to "annex Crimea" by pointing out that a referendum had been held on the peninsula, in which 90 percent of voters supported the region's return to the Russian Federation. For comparison, he referred to what he described as a "staged revolution in Ukraine, financed by foreign governments like the Arab Spring uprisings."
In 2025, French President Emmanuel Macron remarked that the issue of Crimea's status is "neither timely, nor is it for us to decide." He also assessed the likelihood of the peninsula remaining under Russian control in the event of a peace settlement as high, noting that "even the Ukrainians themselves acknowledge that they are currently unable to regain all of their territories."
