01 July 2025
Rory Finnin Joined the Advocacy Mentorship Initiative for Crimean Political Prisoners
We are pleased to announce that Professor Rory Finnin of the University of Cambridge has become a mentor to Crimean political prisoner Volodymyr Ananiev as part of Ukraine’s advocacy mentorship initiative supported by the Mission of the President of Ukraine in the Autonomous Republic of Crimea.
During the Forum on European Culture at the De Balie cultural center in the Netherlands, a public talk titled “Why We Need to Talk About Crimea” took place, where Rory Finnin highlighted Volodymyr’s story — one of the oldest political prisoners from Crimea. In 2024, Volodymyr traveled to Crimea to visit childhood friends and was detained by the occupation security forces. He was accused of allegedly planning a terrorist attack against a representative of the peninsula’s occupation leadership. On 23 June 2024, a Russian “court” unlawfully sentenced him to 13 years in a penal colony.
In addition to sharing the story of his mentee, Rory Finnin emphasized that indifference to the issue of Crimea reflects a broader pattern of ignoring the colonial nature of Russian policy. According to him, the silence, blindness, and historical amnesia surrounding Crimea were made possible because the Western intellectual community has long overlooked the imperial character of Russia.
“For too long, we have surrendered to Russian reflexive control. Rather than listening to voices of Ukrainians, Crimean Tatars, Kazakhs, Estonians, which is long evident in cultural context in particular. And they focused on an important truth. And very simply, Russia is an expansionist land empire that is actively right now re-colonizing conquered peoples, often with genocidal intent,” Rory Finnin stated.
We sincerely thank Professor Rory Finnin for joining the advocacy mentorship initiative for Crimean political prisoners, for his unwavering support of Ukraine in academic circles, and for actively promoting Ukrainian issues in international discourse.
Information about Rory Finnin’s speech:
- Twitter: https://x.com/CamUkrainistyka/status/1938495070958768192
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/share/v/166sWR6cvm/
- Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/camukrainistyka.bsky.social/post/3lsl3tzbn3c2b
You can watch the full video of Rory Finnin’s speech at the De Balie forum via the link: