In Sevastopol, representatives of the “Russian Block” were not allowed to hold a mass event. Instead, the protesters held a series of single pickets, located more than 50 meters apart from each other.
There were following slogans: “Putin, return people equal protection by the law”, “Carry out judicial reform, stop all-round bail in courts”, “We demand to stop lawlessness and designer cases”, “Do not kill small business”, “Sevastopol is not a feeder, but city of Russian glory” on the banners of the picketers.
According to the police, it did not prevent the holding of such a peaceful assembly.
Recall that on October 14, 2017 Crimean Tatar and Muslim activists also intended to hold single pickets against the lawlessness of the power structures of the Russian Federation and fabricated cases against activists. The picketers were in different localities. However, the police on that day massively detained the participants of single pickets. Later, at least 82 of them were fined for amounts ranging from 10,000 to 15,000 rubles each. By the end of January, the total amount of fines for participation in single pickets on that day was 850,000 rubles. At the same time, in courts’ judgements, the violation of the rules for holding meetings was the fact that under the guise of single pickets an uncoordinated mass action was held, united by a common idea and similar slogans.
Thus, the actions of the de facto authorities on October 14, 2017 and today testify to the different practice of applying the norms of Russian legislation in Crimea. With respect to Muslims and Crimean Tatars who came out with single pickets, these norms were unjustifiably used to prevent actions and further persecution of activists. This selective practice confirms discriminatory policies in Crimea on ethnic and religious grounds, as well as on the belief grounds.
