As part of the working visit of Member of Ukraine’s Parliament and Authorized Representative of the President of Ukraine on Crimean Tatar people Mustafa Dzhemilev to California on May 30, 2018, with the assistance of the Consulate General of Ukraine in San Francisco, an informative and enlightening event in the format of the presentation of the Crimean Tatar people life in the Crimea occupied by Russia was held at the Stanford University.

The presentation of the Leader of the Crimean Tatars aroused considerable interest among the American audience and gathered a full audience.

In general, Mustafa Dzhemilev's speech was very patriotic, meaningful and reflected the main foreign policy signals of Ukraine regarding Russian aggression against our country and systemic violations of the rights of the Crimean Tatars. In particular, the leader of the Crimean Tatar people stressed that the Russian occupation authorities created for the Crimean Tatars conditions worse than those during the Soviet totalitarian regime. Mustafa Dzhemilev noted that the Russian Federation encourages and supports actions aimed at implementing its state policy of discrimination against Crimean Tatars, which is to intimidate and persecute Crimean Tatars, to restrict their political and civil rights, in particular freedom of thought, conscience and religion.

He also thanked President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko for his resolute refusal of the "trade" proposed by the Kremlin, which was to withdraw Russian troops from the Donbas in exchange for Ukraine's recognition of the legality of the annexation of the Crimea by Russia.

Mustafa Dzhemilev also stressed that during the last several years the Ukrainian Army was seriously modernized, the defense capability of our state increased considerably, the Armed Forces of Ukraine became one of the most powerful in Europe.

According to the Member of Ukraine’s Parliament, international sanctions, imposed against the Russian ruling regime, have a large negative impact and are sometimes irreversible to the economy of the Russian Federation.

At the same time, in his opinion, one can not underestimate the significant resources that the Kremlin uses to propagate within its own countries and carry out a powerful disinformation campaign abroad. In this regard, Mustafa Dzhemilev appealed to representatives of the Ukrainian and Crimean Tatar communities abroad to promote the dissemination of true information about the objective events taking place in the occupied by Russia Crimea.

In his view, Ukraine uses all its resources to counter Russian aggression. However, forcing official Moscow to withdraw troops from the Crimea and Donbas may only strengthen international sanctions. Therefore, consolidating the efforts of the international community on this issue is extremely important.

While in California, Mustafa Dzhemilev met with Michael McFaul, the former US Ambassador to Russia, Professor at Stanford University, and Francis Fukuyama, the Professor at Stanford University.