January 4. Russian law enforcers questioned Iryna Danilovych, activist of Crimean NGO Ukrainian Cultural Center and head at Feodosia branch of Library of Ukrainian Literature. Danilovych was mostly questioned about the activities of UCC in Crimea, list of its activists and its plans for 2016.
January 7. Crimean Tatar man, 45-year-old Ernest Ablyazimov, disappeared in occupied Simferopol. According to his relatives, Ablyazimov left his home on January 4 and was last seen later that day at Simferopol bus terminal.
January 11. Unknown criminals made desecrating writings on the walls of an ancient mosque in the Crimean village of Mizhrichia. Writings were discovered by the workers, who came to repair the mosque.
January 13. Workers of Krymtrolleybus, Crimean state transportation company, demand to be paid arrears in wages. Workers held a rally in front of Krymtrolleybus’s administration demanding the wages their employer owes them for last December. They also say that Krymtrolleybus refuses to pay them for the break during the holidays. Krymtrolleybus management says that workers’ claims are exaggerated.
January 14. Currently only one priest of Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church is living in Crimea after others were forced to leave the peninsula. Priests still come to Crimea to conduct services, but they are not allowed to stay due to Russian migration laws. Since none of them was willing to accept Russian citizenship, they are allowed to stay in Crimea only for up to 90 days.
January 15. Russian law enforcers detained Crimean journalist Zair Akadyrov in Simferopol. Akadyrov was detained near the building of the “Supreme Court of Crimea”, where hearing for “February 26” case is being held today. At first law enforcers tried to take him to the Center for Countering Extremism, but then delivered him to the local police station. They questioned him and later let him go.
January 20. Russian prosecutors of Crimea finished the investigation against Andrii Kolomiiets, 23-year-old Crimean citizen, who was accused of an attempted murder of two Berkut officials during the Revolution of Dignity in Kyiv in 2014 and possession a large volumes of drugs. Andrii Kolomiiets is currently held in detention, while the criminal case against him is waiting to be tried at Kyiv Raion Court of Simferopol.
January 21. Kyiv Raion Court of Simferopol satisfied the plea of FSB to authorize detention of Mustafa Dzhemilev, Ukrainian MP and Crimean Tatar leader. Investigator and prosecutor based their plea on the facts that Dzhemilev is “hiding from the investigation and court”, “might interfere with witnesses”, “is a citizen of another country” and “has no permanent place of residence in Crimea”. Criminal case against Dzhemilev was filed under three article of Russian Criminal Code. Currently he is on Russian federal wanted list.
January 21. FSB sent a list of people suspected of extremism to all post offices of Crimea. The list, dated December 24, 2015, includes personal details and residential address of Crimeans, who are being investigated by Russian law enforcers or have already been sentenced by Russian courts. Postal workers were told to inform Russian law enforcers about all the mail addressed to the people on the list.
January 22. Court of Rozdolne Raion of Crimea tries a criminal case against Ukrainian Volodymyr Baluha. In November 2015, he was visited by Russian police and OMON and accused of stealing a car. During the search at Baluha’s house no evidence of theft was found, but a case was filed against him, accusing him of offending an official. Baluha attracted the attention of occupational authorities in spring 2015. FSB officials came to his house to talk about Ukrainian flag that has been hanging near his house since December 2013. At that time he was accused of stealing tractor parts, but no case was filed.
January 22. On January 22, Crimean journalist Zair Akadyrov was given a notice to come to Prosecutor General’s Office for questioning on January 21. Since law enforcers did not find Akadyrov at home, they left the notice to his relatives and left.
January 25. Muedin Alvapov, 21-year-old Crimean Tatar man, was arrested in occupied city of Alupka on suspicion of burning cars in Yalta. “His family is civilly active and participated in various civil and political events. One can assume that they are being prosecuted for their political views. Evidently, if Muedin’s brother Mustafa returns to Crimea, he will also be arrested,” said Deputy Head of the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar People Nariman Dzhelyal.
January 26. Russian Supreme Court of Crimea extended the detention for three defendants in “February 26” case, Ahtem Chiigoz, Mustafa Degermendzhi and Ali Asanov, until March 8. Their lawyers asked to replace detention with home arrest, but Russian court refused.
January 27. Crimean prosecutors filed a request to ban 54 websites that allegedly contain content calling for extremist or other illegal activities. According to one of the prosecutors, they are closely monitoring the attempts to spread illegal information using the internet and in 2015 they have detected 54 websites that need to have access to them restricted.
January 28. Crimean authorities are seizing the building occupied by Ukrainian Orthodox Church of Kyivan Patriarchate. A respective decision was issue by Russian Arbitrage Court of Crimea on January 14, 2016.
January 28. Armed man surround a mosque in occupied Simferopol. “We were just informed that the mosque on Mokrousov Street was surround by armed men. They let people come in for salah,” said Head of Kurultai’s Central Electoral Commission Tair Smedlyaev.
January 28. Russian law enforcers visited Crimean Tatar children’s center Elif in Dzhanloy. According to the head of the center Luftie Zudieva, during the inspection they seized books for kids. When law enforcers questioned her and Elif employees, they focused on questions on religion. “I don’t know what the reasons for the inspection were. They had no search warrant and wrote no record of seizure of children’s literature. So I signed nothing… They asked questions even from little kids. They were especially interested in books in Crimean Tatar and Turkish languages, though these books were printed by well-known publishers,” she said.
January 29. Russian law enforcers searched houses of Crimean Tatars. “In Kam'yans'ke in Leninsky Raion house of Idris Ametov and Eskender Ametov was searched today. Telephones of all family members were taken. All men were immediately handcuffed. Neighbors, who came to ask what was happening, were also handcuffed,” wrote journalist Lilya Budzhurova on Facebook.
February 1. Russian law border guards on the administrative border between Ukraine and Crimea started forcing Crimeans with Ukrainian passports to fill out migration forms. Crimeans, who recently returned to Crimea from other regions of Ukraine, say that were questioned at great length about where we were and what did we do in Ukraine. Crimeans with Ukrainian passports, who travel from the peninsula to mainland Ukraine, are also warned by Russian border guards that they will need to fill out migration forms on their way back.
February 2. Protesters gathered in Russian city of Rostov-on-Don to demand that Russian authorities return occupied Crimea to Ukraine and cease supporting terrorists in Donbas. “To return Crimea, to stop supporting terrorists in Donbas, to try to change the authorities via elections” is the recipe for saving Russian ruble, said the organizer of the rally Stanislav Trutaev.
February 2. This week Russian authorities of Crimea continued to exert pressure on Crimean Tatars. On February 2, officials of Russian Federal Migration Service in Crimea tried to detain the grandson of Commissioner of the President of Ukraine for the Affairs of Crimean Tatars Mustafa Dzhemilev. They came to the house of Elzara Abdulzhelilova, Dzhemilev’s daughter, allegedly to check the passports of its residents and demanded that Erol, Mustafa Dzhemilev’s grandson, went with them. The same day law enforcers searched the homes of Crimean Tatar families living in the village of Medvedevka, while on February 1 Russian law enforcers also searched the office building, where previously Crimean Tatar TV channels ATR and Lale, as well as Meydan radio station were headquartered.
February 2. Russian Federal State Statistics Service reported that in 2015 housing construction activity in occupied Crimea decreased by 60%. This is the biggest decrease among all regions of Russia. In Russia overall construction activity decreased by 0.5%, with increases reported in some regions. The official report does not explain why Crimean housing market was hit so hard. In December 2015, Russian Head of Crimea Sergey Aksyonov said that it was needed to cease construction and repairs for the time of state of emergency. Crimea also ceased buying construction materials from Turkey.
February 3. District Administrative Court of Kyiv started considering a lawsuit lodged by civil organization Human Rights Group of February 20 demanding to repeal the Decree of the Cabinet of Ministers #1035. This decree bans trade between mainland Ukraine and Crimea. The activists of the civil organization are demanding to recognize the decree as wrongful and repeal it. Activists also demand the government turns over all the documents the decree was based on. According to the Human Rights Group of February 20, the decree “might irreversibly violate constitutional and civil rights of citizens”. The decree in question came into force in January 2016 and limited transfer of goods from Crimea to mainland Ukraine and vice versa. Currently it is allowed to take only about 50 kg of essential goods and staple commodities to Crimea.
February 4. European Parliament discussed the human rights situation in Crimea and in particular of the Crimean Tatars and passed a resolution saying that EU sanctions against Russia can be lifted only after Ukraine restores control over Crimea. Last week, a mission of the Council of Europe visited Crimea and prepared a report that was presented to the European Parliament. MEPs also condemned the unprecedented levels of human rights abuses perpetrated against Crimean residents, most notably the Tatars, an indigenous people of Crimea, and the severe restrictions on the freedoms of expression, association and peaceful assembly. Moreover, European Parliament reminded that Russia has a responsibility to ensure the safety of the whole population and should, together with the de facto local authorities, investigate effectively, impartially and transparently all cases of disappearances, torture and human rights abuses by the police and paramilitary forces active in the Crimean peninsula since February 2014.
February 5. Ukrainian Ministry of Foreign Affairs says that Russia is increasing pressure on Crimean political prisoner Genadii Afanasiev, who was accused of terrorism. “The fact that Russian lawyer Ernest Mezak, who represents an illegally imprisoned Ukrainian and watches the conditions of his imprisonment, was detained on February 3, 2016, demonstrates that Russian authorities are increasing pressure on Gendaii Afanasiev,” says MoFA, demanding that Russia ensures that Afanasiev’s right are properly observed.
February 8. Two Ukrainian political prisoners illegally held in Russian, filmmaker Oleg Sentsov and activist Oleksandr Kolchenko, are being transported to prisons, where they will serve their terms. Sentsov is currently in Samara awaiting transportation to Irkutsk Oblast, where he will serve his term, while Kolchenko is in Voronezh and will be sent to Chelyabinsk Oblast. Currently it is not known in which prisons they will be held. Oleg Sentsov and Oleksand Kolchenko were accused of terrorism and sentenced to 20 and 10 years in prison respectively in August 2015.
February 9. Another state of emergency was declared in Crimea due to the outbreak of African swine fever virus. A corresponding decree was signed by Russian Head of Crimea Sergey Aksyonov. Last week the quarantine zone was widened to cover the whole peninsula after a second outbreak was reported in Belogorsky Raion of Crimea. An outbreak of ASFV was reported in one of the villages of Rozdolne Raion of Crimea in late January. A quarantine and a state of emergency were declared there, but the area covered was subsequently widened to ensure that the outbreak is contrained.
February 10. Crimean political prisoner Genadii Afanasiev, who was sentenced by Russia and serves his term in Syktyvkar, was moved to solitary confinement in a separate prison 100 kilometers from the penal colony where he was held in. According to Afanasiev’s lawyer Oleksandr Popkov, this move significantly toughen the conditions of Afanasiev’s imprisonment, since the rules there are different. Prisoners are allowed only one hour’s walk a day. They are also allowed to receive only one parcel in 6 months and have only one short visit. All of this is of critical importance given the terrible conditions in such prisons. Popkov added that on February 12 the local court will consider the complaint regarding the remoteness of imprisonment — the defense is demanding to move Afanasiev to a prison closer to Crimea.
February 10. In 2015 inflation in Crimea was higher than anywhere else in Russia at 26.4%. Meanwhile the average inflation in Russia was 12.9%, reports Russian Ministry of Economic Development. “In regions of Russian Federation the increased of prices in December year-on-year was from 10.3% to 17.5%, except for Crimea. In Crimea prices increased by 26.4%,” says the official statement. Overall in 2015 consumer prices index increased in Russia to 12.9% from 11.4% in 2014. In the past two years inflation increased twofold from 6.4% on average in 2011-2013. According to Russian Deputy Prime Minister of Crimea Vilaly Nahlupin, prices in Crimea spiked due to the transitional process after the accession to Russia and increase of transportation costs.
February 10. the Tatarstan Supreme Court formally liquidated the inter-regional lawyers' association, Agora. Responding to a request from the Ministry of Justice, this was the first time Russia's judicial system ever ordered the closure of a human rights organization blacklisted as a “foreign agent.” The court concluded that Agora actively engages in political activity, which “foreign agents” are not permitted to do. The group says it will appeal the ruling in federal Supreme Court.
February 10. Occupational authorities of Crimea started to mobilize reservists. “Yesterday evening I was called and told to come to military commissariat with my passport and military ID. When I came, there were more than 100 people there already. They took our military IDs and told us to return in the evening,” said an eyewitness. Spokesperson of Ukrainian military Andrii Lysenko said during a briefing today that mobilization in Crimea is a part of large-scale military exercise. “Currently Russian army is carrying out large-scale military exercise. One of the elements of this exercise is mobilization of reservists,” explained Lysenko, adding that this way the preparedness of military commissariats and other mobilization institutions is checked.
February 11. Russian law enforcers searched houses of Crimean Tatars living in different regions of Crimea. Law enforcers refused to explain the reasons behind the searches and detained a number of Crimean Tatars. The searches continued on February 12, with more people being detained. Subsequently Russian Federal Security Service opened a criminal investigation, accusing four of the Crimean Tatars, who were detained, of being involved with Hizb ut-Tahrir organization. Hizb ut-Tahrir is considered to be a terrorist organization and is banned in Russia.
February 11. Another Crimean citizen, Marsel Alyautdinov, disappeared on the occupied peninsula, reports Krym.Realii. According to Yulia Alyautdinova, Marsel’s wife, he was last seen in Simferopol on February 11. “The car he was using for the last week is also being searched for. I didn’t notice that, but our friends said that he started smoking last week, though he never smoked before. It turned out that last Monday he sold his car. He was planning to do that, but he did not tell me he already did,” Yulia said. Yulia already contacted the police, but there have been no official statement regarding his disappearance.
February 11. Russian Media Putting Words in the Pope’s Mouth. On the eve of Pope Francis’ historic meeting with Russian Orthodox leader Kyrill, Russian sites reported that Pope Francis called the Russian president “the only man with whom the Catholic Church can unite to protect Christians in the east. Citing the French publication Le Journal de Dimanche as their source, Russian media claimed that the Pope called for a united effort with Russia to save Christians being persecuted in the Middle East.
February 11. The launch of the third and fourth lines of the power bridge from Kuban to Crimea will not solve the problems of energy supply of the peninsula fully, said Russian Minister of Fuel and Energy of Crimea Svetlana Borodulina. “The third and fourth lines of the power bridge will not be able to solve the power supply problems fully. We need to take into account”, she said. Russian Head of Crimea Sergey Aksyonov, in turn, said that at its full capacity the power bridge would be able to supply the housing sector fully. Last spring Minister of Energy of Russia Aleksandr Novak said that the launch of the power bridge across the Kerch Strait would not only cover the existing needs of the peninsula, but also completely eliminate the problem of summer and winter peak demand.
February 15. Russian Armed Forces in Crimea receive missile launch platforms capable of carrying and firing nuclear missiles, Online.ua reported. YouTube user Denis Gilz uploaded the video where Russian forces transport the facilities in the area of Kerch. “My friends from Crimea who care for Ukraine’s future sent me this video. These are not military drills!”, the user commented.
February 15. Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu has accused Russia of attacking a hospital in the Syrian city of Azaz, Aleppo governorate.
February 15. Russian and Syrian government forces were accused in strikes Monday that reportedly killed as many as 50 civilians and struck up to five hospitals and two schools.
February 16. While the West keeps saying there’s “no military solution”, the Russian military keeps killing people and capturing land to strengthen Russia’s bargaining position.
February 16. For a brief moment on Tuesday, February 16, 2016, Russians could look forward to a political debate between the leaders of the country's top political parties, including—for the first time in his public career—Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev, representing the ruling party, United Russia. Just hours after the news agency LifeNews reported Medvedev's plans, however, the prime minister's official press secretary announced that he hasn't yet made up his mind. In 2008, when he ran for president, and in 2011, when he headed United Russia's party ticket, Medvedev declined to step up to the debate podium and throw down with rival candidates.
February 16. Refugees are becoming Russia's weapon of choice in Syria
February 16. Ukraine urges the United Nations to send a peacekeeping mission to Donbas, since there is a possibility of a violation spike initiated by pro-Russian terrorists, informed Permanent Representative of Ukraine in the UN Volodymyr Yelchenko
February 16. Russian Vodka Exports Fall 40% Amid Sanctions War
February 16. Ruble Falls After News of Russia's Agreement with OPEC
February 16. As focus remains on Syria, Ukraine sees heaviest fighting in months
February 16. Russia to continue bombing Syria. After bomb attacks on Syrian hospitals, chances of a ceasefire are fading. Russia is planning more airstrikes. Moscow has more in mind than just fighting terrorists.
February 16. German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Monday backed a call from Turkey for a no-fly zone over parts of Syria, saying it would alleviate the situation of displaced Syrians. Merkel's call came on the same day that the Luftwaffe (German air force) confirmed Russian aircraft had been shadowing its Tornado reconnaissance planes over Syria. "These encounters happen in a professional way. There have been no incidents," Lieutenant-General Joachim Wundrak, commander of the Luftwaffe Air Operations Centre, told the Rheinische Post.
February 16. Anti-smoking posters in Moscow have used the image of U.S. President Barack Obama smoking to deter smokers — saying that both he and cigarettes are killers, according to The Moscow Times.
February 16. Russian Nationalists Oppose Moscow’s Plan to Resettle Ukrainian Refugees in Far East
February 16. “DPR” militants threatened to fire at observers of the OSCE special monitoring mission near Kominternove, says the OSCE’s report. OSCE reports that about 200 meters away from “DPR” checkpoint, west from Kominternovo, observers noticed fallen trees and unexploded shells not far from the road. “When OSCE representatives approached the checkpoint, “DPR” militants threatened to shoot if they didn’t stop moving further”, - it is said in the report. It has been reported, that despite the fact that mandate of OSCE mission in Donbas will be prolong for a year, observers may finish their work earlier.
February 16. The Romanian customs service on the border with Ukraine isn’t allowing Russian trucks to pass through the checkpoint into Ukrainian territory. The movement of the Russian trucks has been locked down on both sides of the border between Romania and Ukraine, reported the Ukrainian media.
February 17. The Security Service of Ukraine (SSU) has decided to ban the entry of foreign crew members of vessels engaged in commercial voyages to Crimean ports.
February 17. The combined Russian-separatist forces continue shelling of the Ukrainian positions, ignoring the agreements to de-escalate the conflict in Donbas, the press center of the Anti-Terrorist Operation (ATO) wrote on Facebook early Wednesday.
February 17. Activists in the southern Ukrainian region of Bukovyna have been blocking Russian trucks from crossing the border for days.
August 10. ‘Quiet Regimen’: Russian-Backed Forces Fire 30 Times on Ukrainian Positions; 2500 UAF Soldiers Killed in 2 Years
August 30. Intelligence: Russian aviation is exercising to attack Europe from Crimea
September 2. War has returned to Europe because of Vladimir Putin, and solely because of Vladimir Putin. Negotiation has failed because it is impossible to negotiate over revenge. If a wider war lies further down the road, it will result, not from the realism of a Russian nationalist, but from the unrealized dreams of an angry old Soviet who wants to go back and live again in a time that was quickly swept away by the emergence of a better world. http://thefederalist.com/2014/09/02/russias-leader-is-neither-a-realist-nor-a-nationalist/
September 9. Trump camp struggles to explain Russian TV interview http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow/watch/trump-strains-to-explain-russian-tv-interview-761911875587
September 11. Russian occupation forces threaten Crimeans with layoffs if they boycott Duma elections - human rights activists Read more on UNIAN: http://www.unian.info/politics/1515224-russian-occupation-forces-threaten-crimeans-with-layoffs-if-they-boycott-duma-elections-human-rights-activists.html
September 11. China and Russia will hold eight days of naval drills in the South China Sea off southern China's Guangdong province starting from Monday, China's navy said.
September 11. Denis Sidorov, a soldier from Moscow who had been arrested September 9 in Donetsk region, testified against Russian officers who have been fighting against Ukraine in the temporarily occupied areas of Donbas.
September 11. Nothing better captures Mr Trump’s hostile takeover of the Republican party than its 180-degree turn on Russia. Every hacking — most recently last week’s “exfiltration” of electoral rolls in Arizona and Illinois — appears to benefit Mr Trump. Anything that could implant doubt about Mrs Clinton’s likely victory in November is grist to his mill. Only he seems to question Russia’s role in the leaks. “I think it’s probably unlikely. Maybe the Democrats are putting that out,” Mr Trump last week told Russian television (yes, you read that correctly). He also told the state-owned broadcaster that Mr Putin was far more of a leader than President Barack Obama. As I say, the surface evidence for Trump-Putin connivance looks plain.
September 12. Russian guard vessel violates Ukrainian sea border
September 12. The European Union condemns conducting Russian elections to State Duma in occupied Crimea and Sevastopol, a spokesman for the European Commission Maja Kocijancic said at a briefing in Brussels.
September 12. War in Ukraine: Militants conducted 37 attacks on Ukrainian army positions over the past day
September 12. Russian Investigative Committee Raids Bank of Russia; Likely Related to Missing $92 Million from MAB
September 12. After 1991, the Kremlin has been systematically fiddling with the term ‘rossiyane', which designates the all-embracing community of the Russian Federation, and the term ‘russkiye', which is reserved solely for the ‘ethnic Russians'. The latter group retains the highest position in the present-day arrangement of Russia's ethnicities, many of which are discriminated and repressed. Despite the fact that such oppression is prohibited by Russian law, the Kremlin may frequently choose to ignore its own regulations – and that is something we can witness in the case of the Crimean Tatars and Moscow's imperialistic scheming in the illegitimately occupied peninsula.
September 12. The Ukrainian film director Oleg Sentsov, who is serving a 20-year prison sentence in Russia, has smuggled a defiant letter from his jail in Siberia, comparing himself to a “nail that will not bend”.
Sentsov, a film-maker and pro-Ukrainian activist, was arrested in Crimea in May 2014 soon after Russia’s president, Vladimir Putin, annexed the peninsula. He had been helping to deliver food to Ukrainian soldiers marooned at their bases following Russia’s takeover.
September 12. WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Chief of Naval Operations called for a set of rules to guide at-sea interactions between the U.S. Navy and Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Navy, calling recent harassment from IRGCN small boats “not helpful.”
September 12. New evidence has appeared in the case of the Tu-154 crash near Smolensk in April 2010, which killed the then Polish President, Lech Kaczynski and other top leaders of the country, according to Poland’s TVP.
September 13. Militants from the so-called ‘Donbas people’s republic’ [DNR] have ‘arrested’ seven teenagers and claim that they were blowing up civilian and military targets for Ukraine’s SBU [Security Service].
September 13. Russia's New Children's Rights Commissioner Can't Recall Discussing Ancient Womb-Memory Science
September 13. News reports claim that the Islamic Republic of Iran is in the process of deploying Russian-made S-300 surface-to-air missiles and is either negotiating for, or has already placed an order for, 300 T-90 main battle tanks and at least 30 Sukhoi Su-30 multirole fighter jets manufactured in the Russian Federation.In reality, very little of these supposed Iranian orders for Russian arms have materialized so far, and they are also unlikely to materialize very soon.
September 13. Putin Favoring Military Picks Guns Over Schools and Hospitals
September 13. President Obama has accepted another Trojan horse from Vladimir Putin, adding to his collection: the Syrian cease-fire that commences today. Read more at: http://www.nationalreview.com/article/439938/syria-ceasfire-serves-putin-assad
September 13. Police Find $123M Cash in Home of Russian Anti-Corruption Offical
September 13. Russia brings Stalin era denunciations to occupied Crimea
September 13. Putin has launched ‘world war against trust
2014- Russian Ukraine war
2014 Russia annexes Ukraine's Crimea
2013- Dagestan Insurgency
2011- Involvement in Iraqi insurgency
2011- Involvment to Syrian civil war
2009- North Caucasus Insurgency
2007- War in Ingushetia
2000- Chechen Insurgency
1991- Occupation of 5,2% Estonian territory
1948- Involvement to Arab-Israeli Conflict