23-year-old Fakhri Muratov was dragged from his car in Russian-occupied Crimea on February 6 by men in masks and without any insignia.  The men proceeded to beat him and then search his car, before driving off.

There are several reasons why the event on March 18 which will give Vladimir Putin his fourth official term as Russian President can only loosely be termed ‘elections’. There is one, however, that surely invalidates any outcome since Russia is insisting on holding the elections in illegally occupied Ukrainian Crimea.

Having Ukrainian symbols on his bike was excuse enough for Ihor Movenko to be savagely beaten up in Russian-occupied Crimea.  He is now facing a five-year prison sentence because he tried to get his assailant prosecuted.  Human rights activists believe that Russia is promoting any form of hatred towards pro-Ukrainian Crimeans, with the ‘courts’ there to provide whatever sentence is demanded.

Any Crimean still using Russian social media like VKontakte or Odnoklassnik for correspondence should close them down immediately, preferably after deleting all personal messages and posts from the last decade.  It is likely that Russia’s FSB [security service] has long had unimpeded access to Russian-based Internet messengers, postal services and social media, however a new ruling has now strictly prohibited any Internet providers from even divulging details of their collaboration with the FSB.

Ukrainian filmmaker Oleg Sentsov, sentenced in Russia to 20 years for non-existent ‘terrorism’, has become one of the laureates of the Andrei Sakharov Award for Courage, together with two other Ukrainians facing Russian persecution: journalists Mykola Semena and Roman Sushchenko.

The ‘trial’ in Russian-occupied Crimea of journalist Alexei Nazimov and politician Pavel Stepanchenko is descending into farce, after never really making much sense.  This has not prevented the two men being held in detention since October 2016, and the lack of any substance to the charges may well have no impact upon the eventual verdict.   

How do you flesh out the ‘trial’ of a Ukrainian prosecuted by the Russian occupiers of his homeland for writing on Facebook that ‘Crimea always was, and remains Ukrainian”?   A Russian-controlled prosecutor and court in occupied Crimea are trying to find something sensible to add to this grotesque ‘trial’ of Crimean Tatar activist Suleyman Kadyrov and failing badly. 

In the latest attack on the Crimean Solidarity civic initiative, a huge contingent of Russian OMON riot police have disrupted the monthly meeting held to discuss ways of helping political prisoners and their families.  There was no real attempt to come up with a credible reason for what was clearly an attempt at intimidation  - one that follows the arrests of several Crimea Solidarity activists on trumped-up charges.

Russia’s overt terrorization in occupied Crimea continued on January 25 with two more armed searches.  The targets this time included Ebazer Islyamov from Nizhnegorsk, who was detained and then put through a court hearing despite all those responsible being informed that he has a brain tumour.  An armed search was also carried out of the home of Crimean Tatar activist Enver Krosh in Dzhankoj, who was subjected to torture two years ago after refusing to collaborate with Russia’s FSB

A Russian-controlled ‘court’ in Crimea has remanded Ismail Ramazanov in custody for a month after refusing to react to the young man’s acute pain from the beating he endured in police custody. Ramazanov is accused of ‘extremism’ over comments he allegedly made to an Internet radio station.

It is exactly three years since the first FSB arrests of Crimean Muslims on fabricated ‘terrorism’ charges

A ‘prosecutor’ in Russian-occupied Crimea has proven unable to tell five Crimean Tatars on trial which country they are alleged to have acted illegally in, and how they did so.   This is not the first time that the prosecutor has been stumped for an answer, though that has not prevented two of the men -  Ali Asanov and Mustafa Degermendzhy -  being held either in custody or under house arrest for almost three years. 

The Russian occupation authorities in Crimea have made no attempt to investigate the death of 83-year-old veteran of the Crimean Tatar national movement, Vedzhie Kashka, minutes after the FSB’s extraordinary attempt to arrest her.  Instead the very lives of two of the four men arrested in the same ‘case’ are being placed in danger as part of a cynical and futile attempt to discredit Crimean Tatars. 

Police in Russian-occupied Crimea have on several occasions tried to justify detaining Crimean Tatars holding legal solitary pickets by claiming that their protest “aroused dissatisfaction among the Slavonic population”.

A second ‘judge’ in Russian-occupied Crimea has sentenced Volodymyr Balukh to three years and seven months’ imprisonment on overtly falsified charges after an identical sentence had to be revoked. The second ‘trial’ was just as flawed as the first, leaving no doubt that Balukh is being persecuted for the Ukrainian flag he continued to fly over his home after Russia’s invasion and for his unwavering opposition to Russian occupation.

Mustafa Dzhemilev says that the armed searches that Russia’s FSB carry out now in occupied Crimea are far worse than those of their Soviet predecessors. This is not the first time that the veteran Crimean Tatar leader who spent 15 years in the Soviet political labour camps, has pointed to a level of lawlessness under Russian occupation which goes beyond that of the Soviet totalitarian regime

Russia is continuing to violate international law by conscripting young Crimeans into the army of an occupying state, and prosecuting those who refuse to do military service.  Conscription is also forming part of Russia’s mounting persecution of Jehovah’s Witnesses. 

There are compelling grounds for fearing that Russia’s so-called ‘restoration work’ on the world-renowned Khan’s Palace in Bakhchysarai could forever destroy this vital monument of Crimean Tatar cultural heritage.  While Russia is denying the accusations, photos smuggled out of the site are alarming, as is the lack of any experience in restoration work of the construction company and Moscow architectural firm commissioned to carry out the work.

Ukrainian political prisoner Vadim Siruk has been beaten up by Russian OMON police just a week after lawyers received reports that he and human rights activist Emir-Usein Kuku had been subjected to torture. Siruk, Kuku and four other Crimean Muslims are being taken ‘for trial’ to Rostov in Russia, with such journeys often used as a way of putting pressure on prisoners. 

The scale of repression and the number of political prisoners rose massively in 2017 and 100 children are now growing up without their fathers. Many were present when armed and masked men burst in to their homes and are deeply scarred by experiences no child should go through