Occupied Crimea is administered by a local authority installed by the Russian government, and led by Sergey Aksenov as “head of republic” of the “state council of the republic of Crimea.” The “state council” has taken over day-to-day administration and other functions of governing. In March Russian occupation authorities staged a “referendum” on Crimea’s political independence and fabricated the results in an effort to legitimize Russia’s planned annexation. Following Russia’s purported “annexation,” legal and economic structures in Crimea were required to conform to Russian laws by 2015. In September occupation authorities held “parliamentary elections” in which only Russian political parties won seats. The election was closed to independent observers and was not free and fair. Russian authorities maintained control over Russian military and security forces deployed in Crimea.
Following Russia’s purported “annexation” of Crimea, occupation authorities employed Russian troops without insignia and organized “self-defense” groups with alleged ties to organized crime as security forces to consolidate their control. The “self-defense” groups included some loyalists of former president Yanukovych, former members of the Berkut riot police, and Interior Ministry internal forces. Residents of Crimea faced broad restrictions on their human rights, as occupation authorities imposed repressive federal laws of the Russian Federation on the Ukrainian territory of Crimea.
The most significant human rights problems in Crimea during the year were directly related to the Russian occupation.
• Since February, Russian soldiers supported by “self-defense” groups used force and intimidation to suppress dissent and opposition to the occupation. This included extrajudicial killings, kidnappings, disappearances, arbitrary detention, physical abuse, torture, and deportation. Russian occupation authorities also imposed an illegitimate government on inhabitants, organized elections with no legitimacy, used force to disband protests, and imposed Russian citizenship on Ukrainian citizens.
• Russian occupation authorities sought in particular to deprive Crimean Tatars of their human rights. Tatars were killed, kidnapped, and arbitrarily detained. The Tatar Mejlis, the legally recognized representative council of Crimean Tatars, was forcibly seized and shut down. Russian occupation authorities banned Tatar leaders Mustafa Dzemiliev and Refat Chubarov from Crimea for five years; closed most Tatar media and information sources; and raided Tatar mosques, other religious institutions, libraries, and schools.
• Occupation authorities deprived Crimeans of their freedom of speech through a violent crackdown on dissent, journalists, and media institutions. In February and March, local and international journalists were detained and abused. In August occupation authorities closed independent media organizations and threatened others with prosecution for either supporting separatist activities or speaking out against the occupation.
Other problems under Russian occupation included poor conditions in prisons and pretrial detention facilities; political interference in the judicial process; limitations of freedom of movement; displacement of thousands of individuals to mainland Ukraine; failure to allow Crimeans to exercise their right to vote in periodic and genuine elections to choose their leaders; official corruption; discrimination and abuse of ethnic and religious minority groups; discrimination against lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) persons; kidnapping and transport of orphans to Russia by occupation authorities; and employment discrimination against persons who did not hold a Russian passport.
Russian occupation authorities took few, if any, steps to investigate or prosecute officials or individuals who committed human rights abuses, creating an atmosphere of impunity and lawlessness. Occupation forces and local “self-defense” forces often did not wear insignia and committed abuses with impunity.