Press release of the human rights initiative “Irade”

The fight against disloyal residents of occupied Crimea is being conducted according to the Chechen scenario, which provides for a whole range of persecution, from beatings under the pretext of detention to public humiliation. These conclusions are contained in a non-public study by the human rights initiative Irade, whose experts interviewed several dozen victims and examined recent cases of persecution for demonstrating sympathy for Ukraine.

According to human rights activists, the range of measures used includes psychological, physical, legal and administrative tools to put pressure on the victim of persecution. At least 40 per cent of all cases studied contain evidence of the use of several tools simultaneously. For example, nightclub DJ Pavel Korotky was fined by a court, forced to publicly humiliate himself, subjected to an information campaign in the controlled media, and dismissed from his job simply for playing a Ukrainian song at a disco.

The most common tactic used by Russian security forces is to charge the victim with additional offences, such as hooliganism, refusal to comply with police orders, or displaying Nazi symbols (which Russian law considers to include a number of Ukrainian symbols). At least 39 per cent of victims of persecution have faced such forms of pressure this year. Additional offences carry either additional fines or imprisonment for up to 15 days.

Another popular tool is the method of ‘video apologies,’ which is popular in Chechnya, where detainees are pressured to apologise on video. This year, at least one in four Crimeans accused of sympathising with Ukraine has been forced to apologise for their views, declare their love for Putin and declare their support for Russia’s military aggression against Ukraine. These videos were then widely distributed on social media and media outlets controlled by Russian propagandists.

In addition, human rights defenders expressed particular concern about excessive and unjustified violence by Russian security forces in situations that do not constitute serious offences. ‘To draw an analogy, it is as if a driver violated parking rules yesterday and today was detained by a police special forces unit – with the use of force, handcuffs and prolonged detention at the police station. And all this just to issue him a fine for illegal parking,’ Irade emphasised.

They also cited a real-life example of 62-year-old Rustem Ablyalimov, an elderly resident of the Simferopol district, who had his hands tied behind his back, was handcuffed and held on the cold ground in this position for a long time just for posting a video in support of Ukraine on his social media page.

Human rights activists recalled that since the beginning of the full-scale invasion until November 2025, there have been 1,632 known cases of persecution of Crimeans for ‘discrediting the army’ – the most popular charge for people who support Ukraine.