This article was edited by Dr. Maksym Vasin on the basis of materials, prepared for IRF by the Regional Center for Human Rights.
Consequences of the Russian occupation of Crimea in 2014
In February-March 2014, the Russian Federation committed an act of armed aggression, as a result of which it occupied the Crimean peninsula, a part of the sovereign territory of Ukraine – with the status of an autonomous republic within the unitary state of Ukraine. Contrary to the fundamental principles of international law, the Russian authorities recognized the fact of the annexation of the newly created “Republic of Crimea” and "the Federal city of Sevastopol" as subjects of the Russian Federation under their national legislation [1]. Through these actions, by recognizing the establishment of effective control over them, the Russian Federation assumed legal responsibility for the observance of human rights in these Ukrainian territories.
Since then, Russia has begun to implement its own legislation in the occupied territory, violating the requirements of international humanitarian law in relation to occupied territories. Ukrainian religious organizations in Crimea were forced to re-register in accordance with the requirements of the laws of the Russian Federation in order to maintain their legal status, control over property, and the ability to continue conducting religious and social activities. These actions became a part of the implementation of Russia's repressive policy in Crimea aimed at destroying Ukrainian national identity. In addition to automatic naturalization, which implied the recognition of all residents of Crimea as citizens of the Russian Federation, the Russian authorities began to purposefully persecute religious organizations and believers who did not openly recognize the Russian occupation of Crimea or were perceived as disloyal for other reasons.
As professor José Casanova noted, although the Russo-Ukrainian armed conflict "is not religious, religion plays a huge role in it.” [2] According to him, in the occupied Ukrainian territories of Crimea and Donbas, where the UOC became the only legally recognized religious organization, "the interests of two projects coincided – the imperial state project "Russia" and the religiously-canonical one of the Moscow Patriarchate, which claims the territories of the so-called "Russian world." Therefore, Crimean Tatars, Greek Catholics, Protestants, and parishioners of the Kyiv Patriarchate (now named the Orthodox Church of Ukraine or OCU) are encountering problems. Thus, the use of legal, law enforcement, and propaganda tools of repression in Crimea have the ultimate goal of completing the illegal annexation of the Crimean peninsula and contradicts the norms of international law.
At the beginning of 2014, there were 2,220 religious organizations of various faiths operating in the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol, of which 1,546 had the status of a legal entity, while 674 religious communities operated without state registration. Taking into account official data on unregistered communities, the most widespread faiths in Crimea at that moment were Islam (45.7 %), orthodoxy (30.4 %), mainly of the Moscow Patriarchate, and Protestantism (15.6%). [3]
In the first years of the occupation of Crimea, the fight against religious dissent was mainly conducted by methods such as the refusal to re-register in accordance with the legislation of the Russian Federation, the seizure and destruction of OCU churches, arbitrary searches and arrests of Muslims among the Crimean Tatars, and the intimidation of religious figures and believers by paramilitary groups. Simultaneously, hostile rhetoric was deployed in the media controlled by the Russian authorities, resulting in religious intolerance and xenophobia around Ukrainian identity. At the same time, the Russian Orthodox Church extended its control over the parishes of the Simferopol and Crimean dioceses of the UOC in a non-canonical way. This practice is now de facto being repeated in other Ukrainian territories occupied by Russia. [4]
Since the adoption of the so-called anti-missionary amendments to the regulatory legal acts of the Russian Federation (the “Yarovaya law”) in 2016, the situation has significantly deteriorated in Crimea, as well as in Russia itself [5]. Ostensibly, these legislative changes were introduced to combat extremism and terrorism; in fact, they only expanded the toolkit of repressive actions for representatives of the Russian authorities: from this moment on, they could further restrict human rights, in particular the freedom of speech and religion. Repressive actions based on the amendments of the “Yarovaya law”, as well as other legislative acts of the Russian Federation, were unlawfully extended to the Russian-occupied Crimean peninsula, thus increasing the scale of religious persecution on Ukrainian territory. As a result of this, Muslims of various faiths and Protestant churches of various denominations were outlawed.
In 2017, the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation banned the activities of Jehovah's Witnesses. They were added to the list of banned organizations that already included the Muslim movements Hizb ut-Tahrir al-Islami and Jamaat Tablig. Despite the fact that Ukrainian legislation does not restrict the activities of these religious associations, the Russian authorities unlawfully extended these bans to the occupied Crimean peninsula.
According to the norms of international humanitarian law (IHL), a state that has invaded someone else's sovereign territory must respect the religious convictions and practices of the population of the occupied territory [6]. Despite this, the Russian authorities enacted a repressive religious policy based on intolerance of the Ukrainian identity and a hostile stereotypical attitude towards non-orthodox religious denominations as potential Western spies. At times, this led to absurd accusations of extremism, such as those against Jehovah's Witnesses, a completely pacifist religious organization.
As a result of the Russian occupation, the non-compliance of the Russian-controlled local authorities with the norms of IHL, and the illegal extension of the legislation of the aggressor state to the occupied territory, the state of religious freedom on the Crimean peninsula has sharply deteriorated. Russia's propagation of repressive religious policies to the territory of a neighboring state has led to its inclusion in the list of "Countries of Particular Concern” by the US Department of State. [7]
Let us evaluate the situation of believers of different denominations on the territory of occupied Crimea.
Orthodox Church of Ukraine (OCU)
On the eve of the occupation of the peninsula, the Crimean Diocese of the Kyiv Patriarchate (OCU since 2019) consisted of 41 parishes), three missions, and one orthodox brotherhood [8] (the OCU itself mentions 45 parishes and one monastery). The diocese's staff consisted of 14 clergy. The OCU developed fairly actively, among its parishioners were both Ukrainians, Russians, and Crimean Tatars.
On March 11, 2014, the Bishops’ Council of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Kyiv Patriarchate (OCU since 2019) issued an official statement in which it strongly condemned the occupation of the sovereign territory of Ukraine (the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol) by Russian troops and called on the international community to "stop Russian aggression in Ukraine, to force the Russian leadership to fulfill its international and bilateral obligations to stop interfering in Ukraine's internal affairs and inciting separatism” [9]. This demonstration of disloyalty by the Church to the new authorities led to further persecution of this religious association, and eventually to the expulsion of a significant part of parishioners and clergy from the territory of the Crimean peninsula.
The Crimean Diocese of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine refused to comply with the requirements of the legislation of the Russian Federation and did not re-register as a legal entity. In particular, the OCU did not conform to the requirement for its members to acquire Russian citizenship or a permanent residence permit in the Russian Federation, which was one of the conditions for re-registration in accordance with Russian legislation. In the end, the OCU found itself outside the legal framework of the aggressor state, which created formal “legal grounds” for persecuting the Ukrainian church for conducting “illegal religious activities” in the occupied peninsula.
The Russian authorities initiated targeted persecution of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Kyiv Patriarchate (OCU), approving court decisions on the seizure or demolition of church buildings, imposing administrative fines on clergy, and arbitrarily seizing religious buildings, such as in the city of Sevastopol and the village of Perevalne (Simferopol District). Attempts by the OCU to apply legal mechanisms to protect their violated rights in the judicial and other bodies of the occupation authorities were almost always unsuccessful, even in cases of obvious violation of the legislation of the Russian Federation by representatives of the Russian authorities who exerted pressure on the Church and its believers.
The OCU was not spared in a new wave of repressions related to the introduction of the amendments of the “Yarovaya law”. On August 8, 2021, for example, employees of the “Center for countering extremism of the Ministry of Internal Affairs in the Republic of Crimea” issued a protocol on an administrative offense for carrying out “illegal missionary activities” to the OCU monastery in the village of Balki (Bilhorodsk District).
A distinct tool for the persecution of the OCU in occupied Crimea was the launch of a media campaign discrediting the Ukrainian Church and simultaneously justifying the actions of the Russian authorities that seized churches and violated the rights of believers and clergy of the OCU. These state-ordered materials featured false assertions and unfounded accusations, as well as disparaging statements about the OCU, describing it as a “neo-Nazi sect”, “groups of provocateurs”, “sectarian extremists” and “underground of the Right Sector”.
Certain violations of the rights of OCU believers in occupied Crimea were also recorded by the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, such as the seizure of churches by paramilitary groups, the closure of churches due to the refusal to extend lease agreements, the arson of a residential building of the OCU in the village of Mramorne (Simferopol District), etc. [10]
As a result of Russia's policy of eradication of Ukrainian national identity on the occupied territory of the Crimean peninsula, which is the persecution of the OCU is part of, the number of parishes of the Crimean diocese has decreased from 45 to 7, and the number full-time clergy from 14 to 4. At the same time, many priests and parishioners of the OCU were forced to leave the occupied peninsula with their families, mainly for security reasons due to serious threats.
In August 2021, the Ministry for the Reintegration of Temporarily Occupied Territories of Ukraine prepared a package of sanctions against individuals who persecute the OCU in Crimea [11]. On December 30, 2021, the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine imposed sanctions on 18 individuals involved in these persecutions. [12]
Religious organization "Jehovah's Witnesses"
Before the occupation of Crimea, the number of supporters of the religious organization “Jehovah's Witnesses” on the peninsula was more than 7,000, organized in 22 communities [13]. The Russian armed aggression against Ukraine completely deprived Jehovah's Witnesses in Crimea of the right to freedom of religion, as Russia considers this religious organization “extremist”, referring to the decision of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation of April 20, 2017. [14]
Although the court's decision itself does not substantiate specific “extremist” activities of Jehovah's Witnesses, it became a formal basis for Russian courts to start prosecuting supporters of this religious teaching. Since then, more and more guilty verdicts against members of the religious organization “Jehovah's Witnesses” were issued in Russia under Article 282.2 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (“Organization of activities of an extremist organization”), for no more than the sole fact of belonging to an organization classified as “extremist”. This gave rise to a wave of unfair persecution of Jehovah's Witnesses not only on the territory of the Russian Federation but also in occupied Crimea, where Russian-controlled local authorities hastily implemented Russian legislation.
One of the most common tactics used for the persecution of Jehovah's Witnesses in the Russian Federation and on the territory of the occupied Crimean peninsula are illegal searches of the homes of believers. For example, on the evening of June 4, 2019, the Russian Federal Security Service raided at least nine homes of local believers in Crimea. [15]
In 2020, 451 cases of such arbitrary searches in the homes of Jehovah's Witnesses were recorded in 60 regions of the Russian Federation, and 26 cases in occupied Crimea [16]. The Ukrainian authorities responded to these systemic persecutions by Russia as an aggressor state by launching criminal investigation in March 2021 under Part 2 of Article 162 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine (“Infringement on the inviolability of housing”). [17]
As a result of these raids on the homes of Jehovah's Witnesses by Russian law enforcement, some of them were detained and charged with extremist activities, based on the ban of their religious organization in Russia. Thus, on March 5, 2020, the Dzhankoi District Court, controlled by Russia, found the head of the local religious community of Jehovah's Witnesses Sergey Filatov (Ukrainian and father of four children), guilty on the basis of Part 1 of Article 282.2 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation and sentenced him to 6 years in prison [18]. The court refused to assess the accused's argument of the violation of his right to freedom of religion and did not establish the criminality of his actions; the fact of belonging to Jehovah's Witnesses was enough.
Simultaneously with this verdict, the Russian-controlled Yalta city court announced the verdict on Artem Gerasimov in a similar criminal case, in which he was punished with a fine of 400,000 rubles (about 4,665 Euros or 5,146 US dollars). Later, on June 4, 2020, the “Supreme Court of the Republic of Crimea” altered this sentence to a harsher one, sentencing the religious actor of the Jehovah's Witnesses to 6 years in prison instead. “After Artyom was sent to a penal colony, the FSB officers began to persecute his friends and acquaintances”, the press service of Jehovah's Witnesses reported. [19]
Similar sentences were imposed against Jehovah's Witnesses in two more criminal cases. On March 29, 2021, the Russian-controlled Gagarinsky district court of Sevastopol sentenced Viktor Stashevsky to 6.5 years in prison [20]. The same court sentenced Igor Schmidt, who had been under arrest for more than a year, to 6 years in prison on October 22, 2021.
12 more criminal cases against members of the religious organization “Jehovah's Witnesses” in Crimea are at the stage of pre-trial investigation or are in trial [21]. Taking into account the existing Russian judicial practice, in which the court only needs to establish the fact that the accused belongs to Jehovah's Witnesses in order to sentence to imprisonment, we can predict the passing of a dozen more illegal sentences against Crimean believers.
These accusations of extremism look like a particularly cynical attack on religious freedom, given the all-encompassing pacifism of Jehovah's Witnesses. Their faith forbids them from military service and from calling for or supporting any violent actions. Considering this, Jehovah's Witnesses around the world are neutral to the ruling regime in the state in which they reside.
Nevertheless, Russia uses the fact that the Governing Body of Jehovah's Witnesses is located in New York (USA) as a formal circumstance to stigmatize and defame members of this religious organization, identifying them as “foreign agents”. On other hand, Jehovah's Witnesses do not give in to television propaganda, withdraw from political life, do not recognize the institutions of the state, and resort to active proselytism. For the Russian authorities, this was enough to classify them as “extremist” and deprive them of the status of a legal entity, which was followed by criminal prosecution of religious actors at the individual level. [22]
There are confirmed reports of instances where military commissariats of the occupation authorities in Crimea denied men belonging to Jehovah's Witnesses the right to replace military duty with alternative (non-military) service for religious reasons. The draft board hastily considered these requests and rejected them. An example of such a violation of the right to freedom of conscience is the case of a 17-year-old Jehovah's Witness from Dzhankoi, who received a summons during a draft campaign in the spring of 2020. The draft board considered his application for 4 minutes and denied the faithful young man the right to alternative service without any justification [23]. It is worth noting that the European Court of Human Rights recognized the right of Jehovah's Witnesses to refuse military service for religious reasons. [24]
As of July 2022, the activities of the religious organization “Jehovah's Witnesses” on the territory of the Russian-controlled Crimean peninsula are still prohibited, its religious buildings have been seized, and access to the official website has been restricted. Jehovah's Witnesses are deprived of the right to freedom of peaceful assembly and collective profession of their faith, they are persecuted and intimidated, and are purposefully conscripted for military service despite their conscientious objections. Such difficult circumstances are a serious reason for the forced displacement of Jehovah's Witnesses from the occupied Crimea and other Russian-controlled territories of Ukraine.
Hizb ut-Tahrir al-Islami Muslim movement
At the beginning of the Russian occupation of the Crimean peninsula, the Crimean Tatars demonstrated resistance to actions that violated the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine, and thus showed disloyalty to Russia's annexation policy. Most Crimean Tatars profess Islam. Some of them belong to the Hizb ut-Tahrir al-Islami movement (“Islamic Liberation Party”), which can be considered both a religious organization and a political party. Supporters of this Muslim movement are particularly zealous in the observance of religious dogmas and traditions.
In Ukraine, as in most countries of the world, Hizb ut-Tahrir operates legally. However, in Russia, this organization has been banned and classified as a terrorist organization since 2003. Before the occupation of Crimea, local supporters of Hizb ut-Tahrir numbered 2-5 thousand people, who held various peaceful meetings (forums, lectures) openly and unhindered, distributed their literature, and published their own newspaper "Renaissance". Now Crimean Tatars belonging to Hizb ut-Tahrir are increasingly becoming victims of persecution by the Russian occupation authorities, which press them to leave the Crimean peninsula. Repressions manifest themselves in the form of mass searches and detentions [25], blackmail and threats [26], coercion to cooperate with the FSB [27], an aggressive media campaign to discredit Hizb ut-Tahrir and Crimean Muslims in general [28], discriminatory law enforcement practices, fabricated criminal proceedings and unjustifiably severe punishments [29], violations of the right to legal representation [30], torture, the use of “secret witnesses" in court cases [31] and so on.
According to the "Memorial" Russian Human Rights Center, as of March 22, 2022, at least 94 Crimean Tatar people are being persecuted in Crimea in connection with their involvement in Hizb ut-Tahrir al-Islami, three of whom have already served sentences in Russian penal colonies [32]. This means that almost a third (27.6 %) of the total number of supporters of this movement has been harassed by the Russian authorities both in Russia and in the occupied territories. This fact gives grounds to assert that these persecutions are of a combined ethnic, religious and political nature and based on the disloyalty to the Russian occupation authorities demonstrated by the Crimean Tatars and their governing body, the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar People. In addition, in 2016, the Russian-controlled “Supreme Court of Crimea” classified the Mejlis itself as an extremist organization and banned its activities, which further complicated the situation of Crimean Tatars on the occupied peninsula. [33]
It is noteworthy that Russia displays a deeply inconsistent and selective approach to organizations that it has classified as “terrorist” in 2003. On the one hand, hundreds of Hizb ut-Tahrir supporters, including Crimean Tatars, are being persecuted under the pretext of fighting global terrorism, while on the other hand, the Kremlin is openly cooperating with the leadership of the Taliban, which is banned and classified as a terrorist organization in Russia and other countries. [34]
Consequently, the creation by the Russian authorities of an atmosphere of fear among Crimean Muslims, their relatives, and friends causes their forced migration from occupied Crimea to mainland Ukraine and other states. Considering the aforementioned facts, the Ukrainian Prosecutor's Office launched criminal proceedings on the fact of illegal persecution of Crimean Tatars on the territory of the Russian-occupied peninsula. [35]
Legal qualification of the actions of the Russian occupation authorities in Crimea
The actions of the occupation authorities in Crimea described above, directed towards the persecution of religious communities and individual believers, can be qualified as crimes under various articles of the Criminal Code of Ukraine: violation of the equal rights of citizens based on their national or regional affiliation, religious beliefs and other grounds (Article 161), obstruction of the implementation of a religious rite (article 180), violation of privacy (Article 182), consciously illegal detention, arrest, house arrest or imprisonment (Article 371), violation of the laws and customs of war (Article 438), etc.
Moreover, the aforementioned unlawful actions of the Russian occupation authorities in Crimea contain elements of a crime against humanity under Article 7(1)(h) of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court on persecution on religious grounds, and war crime under Article 8(2)(b)(ix) on intentionally directing attacks against buildings dedicated to religion.
Conclusions on the religious situation in occupied Crimea
1. Systematic persecution of religious communities and individual believers on the territory of the Russian-controlled Ukrainian Crimean peninsula is carried out in order to change the religious environment with the goal of placing it under complete control of the occupation authorities and conforming it to the ideology of the “Russian world”.
2. The main basis for violations of religious rights by Russia is the dissemination of its own legislation, in particular criminal legislation, on the Crimean peninsula, which is the internationally recognized sovereign territory of Ukraine. This has created the formal grounds for the Russian authorities to implement the same repressive tools of restriction of religious freedom and other human rights in the occupied territory that are used on their own territory.
At the same time, much tighter government control and the repressive nature of Russian legislation, especially in comparison with Ukrainian legislation, in and of itself leads to a narrower scope of rights and freedoms of religious communities in Crimea (with the exception of the orthodox communities of the Moscow Patriarchate, to which the Russian authorities are particularly loyal).
3. Targeted persecution on religious grounds in occupied territory constitues an obvious violation of international humanitarian law (IHL), which mandates respect for the religious convictions and practices of the population of an occupied territory. Moreover, the extension of Russian legislation in the field of religion to the territory of the occupied Crimea violates the IHL principle of status quo ante bellum according to which the occupying state is obliged to comply with the existing laws on the occupied territory, primarily in the field of criminal law.
4. Russia's ban on certain religious organizations and the extension of such bans to the occupied territories is a manifestation of discrimination, which is a violation of IHL and international human rights law, in particular Articles 18, 20 (2), 26, 27 of the UN International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.
5. Systematic violations of religious freedom, targeted persecution of religious and ethnic groups, and by these means the creation of an atmosphere of fear lead to the cessation of activities of certain religious organizations and the forced displacement from the territory of Crimea of religious figures and believers who are considered disloyal by the occupation authorities. Such behavior by the Russian authorities deepens the humanitarian crisis caused by the aggressive war against Ukraine. The repressive policy of the Russian Federation on the territory of occupied Crimea may lead to the eradication of Ukrainian national identity, which is inextricably linked with religious diversity. This may complicate the de-occupation of Crimea and the restoration of Ukraine's sovereignty on the peninsula.
1. Vladimir Putin Signs Russia's Annexation of Crimea Into Law: https://nbcnews.to/3CjuuXt
2. Interview of Professor José Casanova to DT.UA: https://bit.ly/3cd7sqO
3. Based on the data from the Report on the network of churches and religious organizations in Ukraine as of January 1, 2014 (Form No. 1), approved by Order of the Ministry of Culture of Ukraine No. 167, dated 19.03.2014.
4. The Crimean Diocese of the UOC (Moscow Patriarchate) stated that it remains subordinate to Patriarch Kirill: https://bit.ly/3T1XY1Z
5. Human rights activists asked Putin to cancel a law that, in their opinion, aggravates political repression: https://www.svoboda.org/a/27826609.html
6. Article 46 of the IV Hague Convention on Laws and Customs of War on Land: https://ihl-databases.icrc.org/applic/ihl/ihl.nsf/Article.xsp?action=openDocument&documentId=E719FBF0283E98E3C12563CD005168BD; article 27 of the Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War: https://ihl-databases.icrc.org/applic/ihl/ihl.nsf/Article.xsp?action=openDocument&documentId=FFCB180D4E99CB26C12563CD0051BBD9
7. USCIRF Annual Report 2021: https://irf.in.ua/p/37
8. Based on the data from the Report on the network of churches and religious organizations in Ukraine as of January 1, 2014 (Form No. 1), approved by Order of the Ministry of Culture of Ukraine No. 167, dated 19.03.2014.
9. Statement of the UOC Kyiv Patriarchate Bishops’ Council on the Russian occupation of Crimea and manifestations of separatism: https://risu.ua/en/uoc-kp-bishops-council-calls-russia-s-allegations-against-ukraine-cynical-lies_n67737
10. UN OHCHR report "The human rights situation in the temporarily occupied Autonomous Republic of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol (Ukraine)" for the period from 22.02.2014 to 12.09.2017, paragraph 140: https://bit.ly/3R1qHCl
11. Ukraine to impose sanctions against invaders for the persecution of OCU in Crimea: https://bit.ly/3Tbkju3
12. National Security and Defense Council imposes sanctions on persons responsible for the persecution of OCU communities in Crimea: https://bit.ly/3CmIsId
13. According to the website of the Prosecutor's Office of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol: https://bit.ly/3CvuiV4
14. The decision of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation of 20.04.2017 on the liquidation of the religious organization “administrative center of Jehovah's Witnesses in Russia”: https://bit.ly/3QEVzbT
15. A raid on Jehovah's witnesses in Sevastopol: https://jw-russia.org/news/2019/06/904.html
16. Jehovah's Witnesses under the yoke of repression. Results of 2020: https://jw-russia.org/news/2020/12/11.html
17. In Ukraine, a criminal case was initiated due to occupation searches of the “Jehovah's Witnesses” in Yalta: https://bit.ly/3ADbty9
18. 6 years of imprisonment for the operation of "Jehovah's Witnesses" in Crimea: https://bit.ly/3wnumCJ
19. In Crimea, another Jehovah's Witness was convicted for faith: https://jw-russia.org/prisoners/gerasimov.html
20. UNESCO report on the implementation of decision 210 EX/5.I.C “Monitoring the situation in the Autonomous Republic of Crimea (Ukraine)”, p. 25: https://bit.ly/3wjVmTm
21. Prisoners of conscience among Jehovah's Witnesses in Crimea: https://bit.ly/3QXgJ4Y
22. Professor Mikhail Utsh explained the “danger” of Jehovah's Witnesses to Russia: https://www.idelreal.org/a/30470742.html
23. Report of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights on the situation with human rights in Ukraine (February 16-July 31, 2020), paragraph 114: https://bit.ly/3R3TAxY
24. Judgment of the Grand Chamber of the European Court of Human Rights in Bayatyan v. Armenia No. 23459/03 of 7 July 2011, paragraph 111.
25. FSB officers conducted mass searches in Crimea and detained five Crimean Tatars in the Hizb ut-Tahrir case: https://bit.ly/3P2P94Q
26. Harassment of Muslims in Crimea: “harassment began with the arrival of the Russian regime”: https://bit.ly/3Cn44UJ; "Paper terrorists". How more than 100 Crimean Muslims are being tried for extremism: https://www.bbc.com/russian/features-58473554
27. FSB warns: refusal to “cooperate” will result in at least 12 years in prison: https://bit.ly/3buGpXK
28. Example of a publication that incites hostility against Crimean Muslims: https://bit.ly/3Qkr3ne
29. Persecution of religious organizations and their participants in Crimea: https://bit.ly/3SyQuTV
30. Crimean Tatars detained in Simferopol are denied access to a lawyer: https://bit.ly/3BOWwKf
31. See, for example: https://bit.ly/3A23Lxl
32. List of those persecuted for participation in Hizb ut-Tahrir (updated): https://bit.ly/3A2tYvm
33. Mejlis banned in Russia: https://bit.ly/3P76Wb4
34. Russian Foreign Minister S. Lavrov met with the head of the Taliban political office in Moscow: https://bit.ly/3JOkOWZ
35. The Prosecutor's Office of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea reacted to the verdict in the Bakhchysarai “Hizb ut-Tahrir case”: https://bit.ly/3zY5ZO7