On January 18, 2020, officers of the Federal Security Bureau of the Russian Federation handed Taras Ibragimov, a Ukrainian journalist, ‘a notice for a foreign journalist or a stateless person on a taken decision of not permitting the entry into the Russian Federation’ at the administrative border with the occupied Crimea.
The FSB document refers to Article 27-1 (1) of FZ Law no 114 of August 15, 1996 ‘On the Procedure for Departure from the Russian Federation and Entry into the Russian Federation”, though does not indicate the reason for the ban.
According to the notice that is available for the CHRG, Ukrainian national Taras Ibragimov is banned to visit Crimea till 31 May 2054.
Ms. Olga Skrypnyk, head of the Crimean Human Rights Group, explains that such actions of the Crimea occupational authorities representatives violate Aricle2 of Protocol 4 to the to the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms – Freedom of Movement. Given professional occupation of Taras Ibragimov, the Crimean Human Right Group considers this ban as obstruction of the journalist covering social issues and human rights matters in Crimea. ‘To my mind, this is a follow-up of the Russia’s policy in Crimea that intends to control absolutely the media space in the peninsula as well as to hide or distort the information on the actual human rights situation in Crimea’, Ms. Skrypnyk added.
