Children with a Russian background living in the Netherlands have been staying at a summer camp in occupied Crimea despite the camp and its director appearing on the European and Americansanctions list, the AD has found.
The Artek holiday camp is described on the list as “patriotic and militaristic”. The EU also claims the Russians are taking children from Russian-held Ukrainian areas to the camp against their will.
According to Russia expert Marcel van Herpen, Artek is “a prime example of Putin’s indoctrination”.
Artek was founded in 1925 as a pioneers’ camp for children from around the world to promote the values of the Soviet Union, but since the Russian invasion of Ukraine three years ago it has reportedly provided military training for children as young as eight.
The AD based its information on videos from Russian state TV on Telegram and Russian Facebook clone VKontakte.
One such video, featuring a show by soldiers from the Russian airforce, Russian children could be seen saying: “Thank you to our dear defenders. We send you greetings from Artek. Thank you for defending our homeland. You are true heroes!”
Children also visit an exhibition titled “Russia is my history” and participate in workshops in which they learn to assemble guns, the AD said.
The camp’s website states that some 10,000 children will visit the camp this summer, from countries including Germany, France, Italy, Spain and the Netherlands.
Despite a warning about travelling to the region, at least nine Dutch children went to the camp last year while five are thought to have visited this year.
According to the Dutch foreign ministry, all residents of the Netherlands are bound by the conditions of the sanctions. Breaches may lead to prosecution, the ministry told the paper.
However, there is as yet no European consensus on whether the parents who send their children to the camp should be prosecuted.
The children concerned have lived in the Netherlands for years and have either one or two Russian parents. Their parents work in shipping and the entertainment business, the AD found.
One of the parents whose child went to the camp this or last year said the child was “visiting grandparents in Russia”, while another declined to comment when confronted with indications his children had been to Artek, adding that he did not know the camp was on the sanctions list.
