It is two years since 31-year-old Ervin Ibragimov, member of the Executive Committee of the World Congress of Crimean Tatars, was abducted by men in road patrol uniform from near his home in Bakhchysarai.  Despite video footage showing the abduction, the Russian occupation regime effectively never carried out a real investigation, which has only heightened the suspicion that enforcement officers or paramilitary organizations were responsible

Oleksandr Steshenko, the young Ukrainian who disappeared after being seized by the FSB in occupied Crimea, has been shown on Russian television ‘confessing’ to involvement in an ‘extremist group’ supposedly created by the Head of the Mejlis, or self-governing body, of the Crimean Tatar people.  This alleged ‘plot’ has been made public just days after Ukraine approached the International Court of Justice asking why Russia is continuing to flout the Court’s direct order to end its ban of the Mejlis

Teachers in Russian-occupied Crimea are demanding information from parents as to whether their children have Russian citizenship and what residence status they and their parent(s) have. The document came to light in connection with angry reactions from pro-Russian officials to the large number of Crimeans obtaining Ukrainian biometric passports

Russia has carried out new armed searches and arrests in occupied Crimea, with one of the targets Server Mustafaev, a highly-respected civic activist and coordinator of the Crimea Solidarity movement

A year after the International Court of Justice at the Hague ordered Russia “to ensure availability of education in the Ukrainian language” in occupied Crimea,  the only remaining ‘Ukrainian school’ does not have a single class taught in Ukrainian

Repressive measures under Russian occupation on the anniversary of the Deportation of the Crimean Tatar people began early this year with the detention on the evening of 17 May of around 20 young people taking part in the traditional youth action ‘Light a flame in your heart’

Russia’s repressive measures against Crimean Tatars are probably not surprising since it is this main indigenous people of Crimea who most dangerously undermine Moscow’s excuses for invading and annexing Crimea

Russia has sent Crimean Tatar Nedim Khalilov against his will to Uzbekistan after illegally taking him from his Crimean home and holding him in a ‘centre for foreigners’ in Russia for 18 months.  This cynical deportation of a 58-year-old who has no links with Uzbekistan can be viewed as reprisal for Khalilov’s attempt to bring legal proceedings against Russian President Vladimir Putin over Russia’s invasion and annexation of Crimea

Ukrainian filmmaker and Kremlin hostage Oleg Sentsov has declared an indefinite hunger strike with his sole demand being the release of all the Ukrainian political prisoners held by Russia. It seems he has been planning this move for the last month and a half and he told his lawyer: “If I die before or during the World Cup, there will be publicity that can help other political prisoners”.  

Volodymyr Balukh was in ‘court’ again on 15 May, looking gaunt and tired after two months of hunger strike. The 47-year-old has faced constant harassment under Russian occupation because pf his pro-Ukrainian position and the Ukrainian flag he refused to remove from the roof of his home, and this new ‘trial’ seems aimed at revenge against a person whom the occupation regime has not been able to break.

The ‘trial’ has ended in Russian-occupied Crimea of five Crimean Tatars accused of ‘involvement’ in a pre-annexation demonstration over which Russia has no jurisdiction.  Verdicts are due on June 4, but are unlikely to bring many surprises, given that this lawless case was not terminated at the first court hearing despite being prohibited by Russia’s own criminal code.

Nuri Primov and three other recognized Crimean Tatar political prisoners are imprisoned in Russia on the basis of a conversation about their Muslim faith, about Ukraine and Russia.  It is likely that similar ‘evidence’ will be provided to jail Primov’s cousin Enver Seitosmanov who was arrested on 10 May

25-year-old Hennady Lymeshko has become the latest Ukrainian to receive a long sentence in Russian-occupied Crimea on highly implausible ‘sabotage’ charges.  There was never any objective evidence to back the FSB’s claim on 15 August 2017 to have averted acts of sabotage, only a ‘confession’ from Lymeshko, who showed signs of having been beaten,

Russia as occupying state is not only violating international law by conscripting Crimeans into its army, but has placed material from the Crimean Human Rights Group informing people of this on its huge ‘Register of prohibited information’.

Fans visiting the 2018 World Cup this summer are to be ‘protected’ by Cossacks similar to those who helped Russian soldiers invade Ukrainian Crimea in 2014.  Hardly an accidental choice of thugs considering that the Kremlin has tried to protect itself against criticism by hiding Ukrainian political prisoners like Ukrainian filmmaker Oleg Sentsov and civic activist Oleksandr Kolchenko thousands of kilometres away from Moscow. 

The increasing militarization of childhood in occupied Crimea and Russia is beginning earlier and earlier, with children decked out in military uniform and taking part, together with the Russian defence ministry’s ‘Youth Army’, in military and other parades for Victory Day.

Ihor Movenko has been sentenced by a court in Russian-occupied Sevastopol to two years’ imprisonment for a comment on the VKontakte social network.  The comments were only ‘noticed’ and a criminal prosecution launched after Movenko demanded an investigation into the brutal and unprovoked attack by a police officer that had left him hospitalized

“You can jail a person, but how do you imprison thoughts?” The question was put by Ukrainian activist Suleyman Kadyrov on 3 May during the appeal hearing against his 2-year suspended sentence for a comment on Facebook that Crimea is Ukraine.

A prominent Crimean Tatar philanthropist and businessman and the General Director of his main business have been seized after what Crimean Tatar Mejlis leader Refat Chubarov called a ‘”black Thursday’ of armed searches in Russian-occupied Crimea.

After concerted efforts in Crimea and publicity beyond, Crimean Tatar political prisoner Uzeir Abdullaev was moved to the SIZO [remand prison] medical unit on Monday afternoon. Initial relief that the immediate danger to Abdullaev’s life had been averted is not shared by Abdullaev’s mother. Dilyara Abdullaeva, who is herself a doctor