It is also horrifying that 79% of Russians support the ban on Jehovah’s Witnesses in Russia, according to a survey conducted by the Levada Center. Undoubtedly, the media and television played a leading role in this outcome by fostering hostility toward Jehovah’s Witnesses — spreading fabricated, emotional stories about Russians allegedly harmed by the sect’s persecution, including claims of hypnosis, threats, and other dubious coercive methods.

 

After the ban on Jehovah’s Witnesses’ activities and the classification of their organization as extremist, the authorities began arresting its members.

 

In May 2017, a resident of Oryol, Danish citizen Dennis Christensen, gathered with several fellow believers in a house of worship to, in their words, read the Bible. A month earlier, the Supreme Court of Russia had declared the activities of Jehovah’s Witnesses in Russia extremist and banned the organization. The Oryol congregation did not get to hold their meeting that May evening: FSB officers stormed the hall. They detained only Christensen.

 

In June, the Dane was formally arrested. All defense requests for a more lenient preventive measure were denied by the court, and he remained in custody. According to his lawyer, his chronic health conditions worsened in pre-trial detention due to lack of heating and hot water in the cell. He was also restricted in visits from his family.

 

Experts predict that the number of criminal cases against Jehovah’s Witnesses will only grow. “This is a direct consequence of the ban,” says Alexander Verkhovsky of the SOVA Center for Information and Analysis.

 

As we can see, the Russian authorities show great concern for protecting the feelings of believers — but only when it comes to the Orthodox Church. Meanwhile, believers of other faiths are harshly and unceremoniously suppressed, with complete disregard for their civil rights and the foundations of the Russian Constitution.

 

(Article 28 of the Constitution of the Russian Federation):

"Everyone shall be guaranteed freedom of conscience and freedom of religion, including the right to profess individually or jointly with others any religion or to profess none at all, to freely choose, have and disseminate religious and other beliefs and to act in accordance with them..."

 

7. Russia’s War Crimes in Ukraine and the Occupation of Crimea.

The fratricidal war launched by Putin in eastern Ukraine, specifically in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions (currently referred to as the Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) and Luhansk People’s Republic (LPR)), is a bloody war crime against the brotherly Russian and Ukrainian peoples. Thousands of people from both sides have died in this war. To conceal the number of Russian soldiers killed, Putin signed a decree in May 2015 classifying information about military deaths during peacetime.

Elena Vasilieva, the head of the Russian veterans’ organization “Forgotten Regiment”, possesses materials that could cause a real political explosion. In February 2017, she requested asylum in Finland.

“Elena Vasilieva came here to finish her work and prove that Russian soldiers are fighting in Ukraine, after which she plans to submit her materials to the International Criminal Court in The Hague. She says she is wanted in Russia by both the military and the FSB security services. She is also facing two court proceedings.
She had personal ties and worked with the murdered opposition politician Boris Nemtsov on the very same materials that forced her to flee to Finland.
Apparently, Elena Vasilieva is the only female leader of a Russian military organization. The ‘Forgotten Regiment’ helped many people affected by the wars in Afghanistan and Chechnya.”

Elena Vasilieva, along with her volunteers, compiled a list of Russian soldiers, mercenaries, and volunteers who died or went missing in the war in eastern Ukraine. This list, which continues to grow, currently contains over 3,120 names. According to Vasilieva, this list is proof that Russian troops are fighting in Ukraine, and thus proves that President Vladimir Putin is lying. By recording the names of the dead and wounded, Vasilieva is, under Russian law, committing a criminal offense.

In July 2017, Kremlin-backed proxies in Donbas announced the creation of “Malorossiya” (Little Russia), which further confirms Putin’s aggressive ambitions toward Ukraine and his desire to achieve political dominance on its territory by any means.
Oleksandr Turchynov, Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine, commented:

“This perverse nonsense, written in the Kremlin and voiced by costumed clowns like Zakharchenko, shows the desire of Moscow’s ‘strategists’ to relaunch military aggression westward, dragging new regions of Ukraine into the bloody meat grinder,” said the NSDC Secretary.

According to him, these provocative and irrational plans are further evidence of the need to adopt the law “On the Specifics of State Policy for the Restoration of State Sovereignty over the Temporarily Occupied Territories of Donetsk and Luhansk Regions”, and to accelerate the liberation of eastern Ukraine from Russian occupiers and the criminal-separatist filth under their control.

The Armed Seizure of Crimea by Russia Under Putin

The forceful seizure of Crimea by Russia, led by Vladimir Putin, took place in early 2014 with the involvement of GRU special forces, VDV airborne troops, and the Chechen “Vostok” battalion. This was a true military occupation of Crimea. State institutions and military facilities were the first to be captured. By mid-March 2014, the occupation of Crimea was complete, and the territory was forcibly annexed by the Russian Federation through a sham referendum. Ukrainian troops, who had been stationed at their bases and locations, were forced to surrender without a fight.

The State Duma of the Russian Federation adopted the “Treaty on the Accession of Crimea to the Russian Federation” on March 18, 2014, and Putin signed a decree ratifying the treaty and granting Crimea the status of a federal district within the Russian Federation on March 21, 2014. This act was a war crime by Russia, and the UN General Assembly did not recognize the new status of Crimea or the referendum as legitimate.

In March 2014, Refat Chubarov, the head of the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar People in Ukraine, publicly denounced the referendum and called on Crimean Tatars and other Crimean residents to boycott it, condemning the forcible annexation of Crimea by the Russian Federation. As a result, Russian authorities began harsh repression of Crimean Tatars, and Chubarov was banned from entering Crimea.

In September 2016, the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation banned the Mejlis as an “extremist organization.” Two deputy heads of the Mejlis living in Crimea, Ilmi Umerov and Akhtem Chiygoz, were criminally prosecuted.

The repression began with the case of Reshat Ametov, who was found murdered on March 15, 2014, near the village of Zemlyanichnoye in the Belogorsk district. His body bore signs of severe beating, his head was wrapped in tape, and handcuffs were found nearby. The cause of death was a knife wound to the eye. On March 3, 2014, Ametov had been abducted in Simferopol after taking part in a picket against the occupation of Crimea.

A similar fate befell 31-year-old Ervin Ibragimov, who was abducted on May 24, 2016, in Bakhchisarai, near his home, by two men dressed as traffic police officers (GIBDD). His father received threatening SMS messages demanding a ransom and threatening to cut off Ervin’s fingers. Appeals to the police were futile; law enforcement failed to identify the culprits even though they had the phone number from which the threats were sent. Ervin Ibragimov was never found.

Since 2014, 43 people have been abducted on the Crimean peninsula:

• 17 were found,

• 18 remain missing,

• 6 were found murdered.

For more information on the persecution of Crimean Tatars, see Novaya Gazeta, June 26, 2017.

By invading eastern Ukraine and occupying Crimea, Russia has violated:

1. The Belavezha Accords of December 8, 1991, which marked the dissolution of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics and the creation of the Commonwealth of Independent States, whose members committed to respecting the territorial integrity of other states.

2. The Treaty of Friendship, Cooperation, and Partnership with Ukraine, signed by Russia in 1997, which guaranteed the inviolability and immutability of borders between the two countries.

3. The bilateral agreements of 1997 and 2010 regulating the presence of Russian military forces and the use of military bases on Ukrainian territory.

4. Article 2.4 of Chapter I of the United Nations Charter, which prohibits threats or use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of any state.

5. UN General Assembly Resolution 2625 (XXV) of October 24, 1970, which establishes the principles of international law concerning friendly relations and cooperation among states in accordance with the UN Charter.

6. UN General Assembly Resolution 3314 (XXIX) of December 14, 1974, which defines an act of aggression as the military presence of one state on the territory of another.

7. The Helsinki Final Act of the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe of 1975, which affirms the inviolability of borders and the territorial integrity of states.

8. The resolutions of the Council of Europe, which Russia joined in 1996, and which twice condemned Russia’s actions for violating the Council's Charter (Resolutions 1990 and 2034 of 2014).

9. The Budapest Memorandum signed on December 5, 1994, by the leaders of Ukraine, the United States, Russia, and the United Kingdom, which guaranteed Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity in exchange for giving up its nuclear weapons.

10. The Constitution of Ukraine, which stipulates that any changes to the country’s territory must be decided exclusively through an all-Ukrainian referendum.

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8. Organized Corruption Within the Russian Government for the Personal Enrichment of Putin and His Inner Circle.

The scale of corruption in Russia has become immeasurable and, most importantly, uncontrollable, because corruption has infected the entire structure of state power—from the head of state, Vladimir Putin, to low-level officials in the most remote villages of Russia.

The Chief of the Main Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs for Moscow, Oleg Baranov, reported:

“…the average bribe amount in the capital in 2016 increased by more than 2.5 times and exceeded 2 million rubles. He noted that the number of officially recorded cases of large-scale bribes also rose by a similar factor. Over the past year, the police in Moscow uncovered more than 8,800 economic crimes. The number of large and especially large bribes increased by nearly a quarter compared to 2015.”
(Source: RBC, July 18, 2017)

Corruption in the form of bribery within government structures is a minor issue compared to the massive corruption schemes involving capital outflow to offshore accounts via public-private partnerships controlled by Putin and his close allies. All of Putin’s embezzled wealth is registered under third-party names—often his friends and relatives.

In 2017, controversial businessman and head of the Hermitage Capital investment fund, William Browder, declared that Russian President Vladimir Putin is the richest man in the world, allegedly with a fortune estimated at $200 billion. But that is a separate subject that would require volumes to cover.

The main conclusion is this: for Putin and his inner circle, Russia serves merely as a personal feeding trough. They are completely indifferent to the fate of the Russian people or Russia itself. But having absolute control over all domestic power is no longer enough for Putin. He has evolved from a spider into a giant octopus, whose tentacles now reach into other countries and continents.

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TO BE CONTINUED…
 

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