Skhemy investigative journalists report that Ukrainian MP and wealthy businessman Oleksandr Hereha has effectively retained his business in Crimea despite Russia’s occupation and in breach of both Ukrainian and international sanctions.  Hereha and his wife Halyna are using the same implausible denial and tricks used by Siemens and other international firms breaching sanctions. 

A ‘court’ in Russian-occupied Crimea has sentenced Andriy Zakhtei to six and a half years’ imprisonment after he was effectively tricked into ‘cooperating’ with the investigators

The men are facing sentences of 15 years or more on unproven charges of involvement in a peaceful organization which is legal in Ukraine. Amnesty International has declared human rights activist Emir-Usein Kuku a prisoner of conscience, however the same applies to all six men who are imprisoned for their faith, and in some cases because of their civic position or out of revenge for their refusal to collaborate with Russia’s FSB.

A Russian-controlled ‘court’ has again extended the detention of Yevhen Panov, the 40-year-old Ukrainian who is single-handedly obstructing the Russian FSB’s first ‘Crimean sabotage plot’ He is currently being offered better conditions and a shorter ‘sentence’ if he agrees to take on Russian citizenship. He rejects them all and is adamant that he a citizen only of Ukraine.

Russia’s FSB [Security Service] has reported the arrest of another Ukrainian for alleged ‘spying’, with the only deviation of the FSB’s pattern being the claim that the ‘secret information’ supposedly passed to Ukraine’s Security Service was about the FSB itself. 

When a case that began with the arrest and death of an 83-year-old veteran of the Crimean Tatar national movement seems to have hit rock bottom, Russia’s FSB proves it can sink even lower.

The ‘trial’ has begun of Andriy Zakhtei, one of the four Ukrainians seized by the FSB in Russian-occupied Crimea in August 2016 and accused of involvement in a supposed ‘Ukrainian Crimea saboteur plot’.  It appears that the entire ‘trial’ will be held behind closed doors, enabling Russia’s FSB to conceal the lack of a credible story, not to mention evidence .

It is people like Volodymyr Balukh, spending his second birthday in prison for his unwavering loyalty to Ukraine that give the lie to Russian propaganda about Crimea and give hope that it will return under Ukraine’s control.

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.