The State Duma demands that the wording “annexation of Crimea” be removed from Wikipedia
Simferopol, September 26 (PolitNavigator, Evgeny Andreev) – The State Duma is outraged that in the Russian segment of Wikipedia the reunification of Crimea with the Russian Federation is interpreted as “annexation”.
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Thus, the Izvestia newspaper writes, a deputy from the LDPR faction Roman Khudyakov appealed to the head of Roskomnadzor, Alexander Zharov, with a request to add Wikipedia articles to the blacklist of prohibited sites, in which it is written that the reunification of the peninsula with the Russian Federation was a forced annexation.
The same view of events is reflected in other Wikipedia articles. For example, the article on political parties states: “The Law on Political Parties” (Article 3, paragraph 2) determines, among other things, that a political party must have regional branches in at least half of the constituent entities of the Russian Federation (that is, after the annexation of Crimea and Sevastopol at least 43)."
Khudyakov considers such language offensive.
“As a legislator, as a patriot of my homeland, Sevastopol and Crimea, I am very outraged that Wikipedia contains such a discussion about political parties and that the annexation of Crimea allegedly took place. I believe that the competent authorities should urgently look into it and block the page or influence the administration of the Russian segment of the resource so that its representatives bring the page into proper condition,” the Duma member noted.
In his opinion, such one-sidedness in providing information hurts not only his patriotic feelings, but also the feelings of Crimeans:
“Therefore, I wrote a parliamentary request to Roskomnadzor in order to urgently understand the situation. I hope that the competent authorities will punish those illiterate people who, not knowing the political situation, not knowing about the referendum, mislead the readers of the resource,” explained Roman Khudyakov.
“In the general understanding, the term “annexation” means the forcible annexation of a state or part of it to another state. Vivid examples of annexation are Romania's annexation of Bessarabia in 1918 and Germany's annexation of the Sudetenland in 1938. However, on March 16, a Crimean referendum on the status of the peninsula was held in Crimea. Based on the results of the referendum and the Declaration of Independence adopted by the Supreme Council of Crimea, the sovereign Republic of Crimea was proclaimed, which turned to the Russian leadership with a proposal to become part of Russia,” writes Izvestia.
The State Duma is demanding the removal of the phrase "annexation of Crimea" from Wikipedia.