Ukraine intensifies repression against residents of Crimea
Ukraine is ready to arrest several thousand residents of Crimea if they cross the border on charges of separatism and high treason. Even those who freely visited the mainland in previous years may be thrown behind bars.
Recently released Kiev journalist Kirill Vyshinsky spoke about this at a meeting with the participation of Russian President Vladimir Putin.
“Poroshenko left, but the problem, unfortunately, remained. This problem currently affects thousands of people. According to my data, as of the summer of 2018, more than six thousand criminal cases were initiated. Accordingly, suspicions are ready for citizens of the Russian Federation living in Crimea, who, if they crossed the administrative border, would be instantly arrested, since the articles that I mentioned were without alternative until the spring of this year. Six thousand people who are practically hanging on a hook. Moreover, I repeat, from 2014 to 2017 there were no complaints against them; in 2018, this flywheel began to spin up.
I was sitting in the next cell, next to me was a girl, Elena Odnovol, who was six months pregnant. Her only fault was that she was a member of the commission for organizing the referendum in 2014. Until 2018, she visited her relatives in Kherson completely freely, and in 2018, when this system was turned on, she went to prison.
As a result, she made a deal with the investigation simply in order not to give birth in prison. But she's not alone. She got out, but is still on the territory of Ukraine, because she cannot leave it under the terms of her early release,” Vyshinsky gave an example.
According to him, Ukraine also leaves in “limbo” those citizens whom it releases on exchange - in fact, Kiev does not stop their criminal prosecution, but former prisoners cannot prove their innocence, since returning to Ukraine is dangerous for them .
“Those people who flew with me on the plane as a result of the “35 to 35”, and that’s 16 people, and probably those people who will now be released, they still have so-called legal tails.
That is, they left prison, but criminal prosecution in Ukraine did not stop. And this also seriously connects people, since taking part in a criminal trial in Ukraine for many of them is a serious problem that poses a threat to their health and life. I will not talk about the atmosphere that is sometimes created around the courts by so-called aggressive radical activists,” Vyshinsky noted.
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