The Crimean Tatar Resource Centre [CTRC] has finally learned the whereabouts of Anatoliy Kobzar, nineteen months after he set off for work from his home in occupied Sevastopol and vanished. Although there was no doubt that the FSB were behind his abduction, such prolonged denial of any knowledge of his whereabouts made it unclear even that he was still alive. It is now known that he is in detention in Sevastopol with the FSB accusing him of ‘state treason’. Russia is illegally forcing Ukrainians to take Russian citizenship and then, just as unlawfully, using that citizenship to bring charges under Article 275 of Russia’s criminal code of ‘treason against Russia’. Such ‘trials’ are invariably held behind closed doors, with no way of ever really finding out what, if anything, the person is charged with. The fact that the FSB have held Kobzar incommunicado, undoubtedly without access to an independent lawyer, is especially ominous, with it likely Kobzar has been subjected to torture to force him to sign whatever ‘confessions’ they demand.
Kobzar was 44 when he disappeared after setting off on the journey from Sevastopol to Bakhchysarai on 5 March 2024. The following day, a search was carried out of his home, with the FSB looking for and removing Kobzar’s Ukrainian documents. The home of friends was also subjected to a search, with the FSB looking for documents concerning Kobzar. The FSB, in short, were not trying to conceal their role in Kobzar’s disappearance and witnesses had also seen him being sized by FSB officers. This made it all the more sinister that there was no formal acknowledgement that he had been detained.
There were very real grounds for concern. Since Russia’s invasion and annexation of Crimea, a number of Crimean Tatars and other Ukrainians, including several civic activists, have disappeared without trace. In the case of Ervin Ibragimov, there was even CCTV footage showing what appear to be men in traffic police uniform abducting him on the evening of 24 May 2016.
Two weeks after Kobzar’s disappearance, his car was found in Bakhchysarai with its windows broken. His family reported that his telephone would turn on from time to time and even connect to the Internet. They could see that somebody was seeing the messages they sent to Kobzar, but there was never any response.
Kobzar is married, with a 26-year-old daughter, and son who was just 12 when his father was abducted. The lack of any information will certainly have taken its toll also on Kobzar’s mother who already had serious health problems. It is most likely that Kobzar was targeted because of his pro-Ukrainian views. Tragically, the only certainty in all these ‘treason trials’, illegally staged against Ukrainian citizens from occupied territory, is that they will result in a conviction and sentence of up to 20 years.
There has been a huge increase in such cases since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, with a very large number of them bearing all the hallmarks of enforced disappearances before ‘sentences’ are announced after secret ‘trials’.
See also:
Lera Dzhemilova
Ismail Shemshedinov
Oleh Platonov and Natalia Poliukh
Russian FSB abduct Crimean couple, place their child in care
Tamara Chernukha
Ruslan Mambetov Crimean Tatar sentenced to 18 years in Russian secret ‘trial’ where only torture is near certain
Roman Hryhorian Ukrainian seized in Crimea and sentenced to 12 years for donations to Ukraine's defenders
Serhiy Hrishchenkov
Victoria Strilets and her daughter Oleksandr Strilets; Oleksandr Osadchy
Oksana Senedzhuk Russia rubberstamps 15-year ‘treason’ sentence against 58-year-old Crimean activist Oksana Senedzhuk
Liudmyla Kolesnikova Russian FSB abduct Ukrainian from her mother’s funeral in occupied Crimea
Nina Tymoshenko Russia’s most savage sentence yet against 66-year-old Ukrainian woman from occupied Crimea
Niyara Ersmambetova
