Russian Law Enforcement Raids a Meeting of Crimean Civic Group

Around 60 to 70 Russian law enforcement officers have raided a meeting of the Crimean Solidarity civic initiative in the Crimean town of Sudak, the organization wrote on Facebook.

Crimean Solidarity, which helps political prisoners and their families, wrote that the officers came after “receiving information that a large group of suspicious people with many bags and potentially weapons” had gathered at a public cafeteria. They then gave the activists two options: provide their passport details or be taken to a police station to be “identified.”

“All the present members whose passports were taken away were asked the same questions: ‘What is the reason you are here? How would you comment on the information we received about weapons at the cafeteria...?’” Crimean Solidarity wrote on Facebook. Police ultimately took a photo of each activist before releasing him or her, the organization added.

Photo credit: Crimean Solidarity/facebook.com

Although almost all the activists have been released, Crimean Solidarity believes today’s events to be a “scare operation” and an attempt to suppress Crimean Tatars who disagree with the Crimean peninsula’s de facto authorities.

Activists also believe that their passport information will serve as a database of Crimean Activists for the Russian government. Crimean Tatar lawyer Emil Kurbedinov also suggested that the activists’ answers to police questions could be used to open misdemeanor cases against them.

Photo credit: Crimean Solidarity/facebook.com

Crimean Solidarity later wrote that people would openly livestream and talk about the raid without fear to demonstrate that “the operation was not successful and will never be.”

/By Maria Romanenko