Crimean authorities act against supporters of united Ukraine
Crimea after the Russian occupation reflects the Soviet past where any dissent, but especially a pro-Ukrainian view, triggers political repression, analysts in Kyiv said.
Experts believe occupation authorities in Crimea are trying to create an impression that everyone supports the Kremlin’s course on the peninsula.
Taras Berezovets, a well-known Ukrainian political analyst and director of the strategic consulting firm Berta Communications, said that “real political terror is unleashed in Crimea.”
“Russian police and FSB with gunmen break into the houses of Crimean activists, Crimean Tatar leaders and popular bloggers,” Berezovets wrote on his Facebook page. “They break in under the pretext of searching for weapons, drugs, banned literature. These people are not handed over unbroken. They are not speechless. And thus, they break an overall picture of support for [Russia’s President Vladimir] Putin in Crimea.”
On September 10th, at 5 a.m., police searched the house of Crimean Tatars Nariman and Ekrem Ametov in the village of Kamenka, claiming that they were looking for weapons and banned religious literature. The police confiscated their cell phones, two laptops and a few books. Prior to this, police have conducted raids on other families, as well as in mosques and Tatar schools.
Former leader of the Majlis, the self-government of the Crimean Tatar people, and the commissioner of the President of Ukraine on Crimean Tatars, Mustafa Dzhemilev, said that these raids are being done for two reasons.
“First is the fear. They [Crimean authorities] all suspect that Crimean Tatars are planning something,” Dzhemilev told SETimes. “And second is to intimidate Crimean Tatars so that they change their pro-Ukrainian position. After all, look where raids are conducted: in the homes of our activists, in houses, where Crimean Tatar and Ukrainian flags are on display.”
Dzhemilev spent 15 years in Soviet camps as a dissident and a human rights activist who defended the right of his people to return to Crimea after Joseph Stalin deported Crimean Tatars in 1944.
“It is terrible that such a term as ‘prohibited literature’ appeared again,” Dzhemilev said. “It was gone in Ukraine for quarter of a century. When they conducted the raid at the school in the village of Tankovoe, where Crimean Tatars study, someone planted so-called forbidden books there. If they plant books today, tomorrow they may plant weapons.”
Yaroslav Kuts, lawyer and expert on criminal law, said such searches are illegal.
“Legally it is abnormal,” Kuts told SETimes. “But we are dealing with the Russian law enforcement agencies that protect the rights of the state, and not the rights of people.”
Under the threat of being arrested, some Ukrainian activists have left the peninsula.
Elizaveta Bogutskaya, a well-known Crimean blogger, was forced to leave her home after the police raid. Investigative reporter Tatyana Rihtun left Crimea after enduring several attacks.
“Now there is such a policy in Crimea that there shouldn’t be any dissatisfaction. Everyone should be happy,” Rihtun told SETimes.
According to her, not only journalists who cover political events are being watched, but those who express an opinion different than the Kremlin also are monitored.
“Alexey Nilov, chief editor of the fashion magazine Face Control, was forced to leave Sevastopol, only because he showed his pro-Ukrainian position. It turned out that one can’t do that,” Rihtun said.
Experts said Ukraine should keep records of these actions.
“All these actions are performed by Russian law enforcement agencies in Ukrainian territory against Ukrainian citizens,” Kuts said. “According to the Ukrainian legislation, it is illegal, it is a crime. We have to open criminal proceedings and recognise people as victims. After all, these are people who support Ukraine, so our Foreign Affairs Ministry should respond, and make a note of protest to Russia. And the Ministry of Justice should appeal to the European Court of Human Rights.”
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