When entering the occupied peninsula, the FSB demands Crimeans to show a Russian passport. If a resident of Crimea travels without a Russian passport and has only Ukrainian one, the FSB Border Guard department staff impose an administrative penalty.
According to the FSB, the Ukrainian passport is invalid for entering/ departing the peninsula. This is stated in a document drawn up on July 20, 2020 for a Crimean resident who was returning home to Yalta from Kyiv.
A Yalta resident informed the Crimean Human Rights Group (CHRG) that she had been interrogated for an hour and a half by a FSB officer at the PEREKOP Russian checkpoint (opposite to the CHAPLYNKA Ukrainian checkpoint).
“He asked me a lot of different questions, namely, where I was born, lived, studied, where I work and with whom I live,” the woman said.
As a result, the Crimean woman was fined RUR2,000 rubles under the RF CAO, Article 18.1-1 (Violation of the rules for crossing the state border of the Russian Federation).
Thus, the Russian security forces are compelling the Crimeans to show specifically a Russian passport issued by Russia in Crimea in violation of international norms to compel to citizenship.
Mr.Alexander Sedov, a CHRG analyst, explains that since Crimea is the territory of Ukraine, and Ukrainian nationals are l in Crimea on legal grounds, the persecution of Crimean residents by the Russian authorities in the occupied territory for crossing the administrative border with Ukrainian documents constitutes a violation of freedom of movement (Article 2 of Protocol 4 to the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms).
“The demand to use the“ passports ”that the Russian authorities issue in Crimea, when crossing the administrative border with the occupied Crimea and the refusal to recognize the legal passport of a citizen of Ukraine constitute one of the forms of coercion to obtain citizenship of the occupying country, i.e. violation of international humanitarian law, namely article 45 of the Hague Convention of 1907 (Convention With Respect of Laws and Customs of War on Land),’ the expert notes.
Such practice proves that a coerced citizenship of the occupying power results into compelling to comply with RF citizen duties (service in the occupying power army, participation in the elections), persecuting the Crimean residents under RF laws and violating fundamental rights and freedoms including freedom of movement.
