Recent Russian security service raids in Crimea could signal the start of a human rights crackdown against Crimean Tatars and locals who oppose Russia’s annexation of the Ukrainian territory, coordinator of the non-governmental organization Crimea SOS Tamila Tasheva told the Kyiv Post on April 20.
She said such violations against pro-Ukrainian citizens had become common in Crimea since March 2014, when Russia invaded the peninsula and then annexed it after holding a sham referendum.
But she said the situation has worsened recently, with Russia on April 18 declaring the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar People — the executive and representative body of the Crimean Tatars — an extremist organization.
The following day, agents from Russia’s FSB security service searched the homes of at least seven journalists and activists.
Dunja Mijatović, the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe’s representative on freedom of the media, voiced concerns over the FSB’s “intimidating actions against residents of Crimea” in a statement posted on the OSCE’s website on April 19.
The most troubling case involved Mykola Semena, a prominent Ukrainian journalist who lives in Crimea, Tasheva told the Kyiv Post.
After FSB agents searched Semena’s house, they seized his laptop and other equipment for examination. Semena was also taken to the local prosecutor’s office for questioning, and released on the condition that he not attempt to leave Crimea.
The Russian occupation authorities in Crimea have claimed that Semena called for the violation of the territorial integrity of Russia in an article published on the news website Krym Realii — the subdivision of Radio Liberty’s Ukrainian Service dedicated to Crimea. Semena denies the accusations.
Russian law enforcement also searched the homes of another six journalists, photographers and activists on April 19. There have not been yet any reports of searches occurring on April 20, Tasheva said, “but this does not mean that there have not been any.”
Tasheva said more than 250 cases of human rights violations against Crimean Tatars and Crimean activists have been reported over the last two years. However, it is believed that many more have gone unreported, she added.
“They (the Russian authorities) want to sweep the information space of those ‘elements’ who have a different opinion,” Tasheva said.
Mijatović said in her statement that “this recent detention only shows the urgent need to stop the arbitrary practice of silencing journalists in Crimea.”
Russia’s Justice Ministry reported on April 18 that the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar People had been included on the list of civil communities and religious organizations that were banned for their “extremist activities.” According to an official ministry report, the Mejlis was banned at the initiative of annexed Crimea’s Russian-installed prosecutor general, Natalya Poklonskaya. Poklonskaya is wanted in Ukraine on charges of conspiring to overthrow the state.
Refat Chubarov, head of the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar People, wrote on his Facebook page on the same day that the Russian ministry’s move “shortened the mental distance” between the regime of Russian President Vladimir Putin and that of Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler, “who condemned to liquidation whole nations in the European countries that he occupied.”
“Putin… behaves in occupied Crimea as brutally as the international community allows him to,” Chubarov wrote.
Kyiv Post staff writer Alyona Zhuk can be reached at [email protected]
