Since 2016, the Russian occupation regime has spent over 100 million rubles on efforts to turn children into so-called “new citizens” and “patriots of Crimea.” This figure almost certainly does not include the massive funding behind the Russian Defense Ministry’s so-called “Yunarmia,” or Youth Army, aimed at glorifying war and instilling a Kremlin-distorted view of historical facts.
Iryna Sedova from the Crimean Human Rights Group stresses that Russia is committing a grave international crime through the money it lavishes on trying to turn Crimean children into “obedient servants of Putin.” The funding is spent on various events, competitions and concerts, as well as on camps, special classes, etc. These can appear harmless, but they are all part of the focus on “military-patriotic education” that Russian President Vladimir Putin has inculcated in Russia and which is now being foisted, in violation of the Geneva Conventions, on occupied Crimea.