The republic was declared an “Autonomous Republic of Crimea”, but also an “inseparable part of Ukraine”. [27] In 1998, a new constitution of Crimea was adopted, which corresponds to the provisions of the Ukrainian constitution. On April 3, 2014, Moscow sent Ukraine a diplomatic note on the termination of agreements on the stationing of the Black Sea Fleet of the Russian Federation on the territory of Ukraine. As part of the deals, Russia paid the Ukrainian government $530 million a year for the base and cancelled nearly $100 million of Kiev`s debt for the right to use Ukrainian waters. Ukraine also received a $100 rebate on every 1,000 cubic meters of natural gas imported from Russia, made possible by reduced export tariffs on gas, money that would have been paid into the Russian state budget. The Kremlin said that since the base was no longer in Ukraine, the rebate was no longer legally justifiable. [58] Crimea and the city of Sevastopol became part of Russia`s Southern Military District. [59] According to HRMMU, on March 27, the FSB searched 25 Crimean Tatar homes in the city of Simferopol, as well as villages in Bilohirsky and Krasnohvardiysky districts. Security forces attacked the homes of activists of the Crimean Solidarity Movement, a human rights organization that provides legal, financial and moral support to relatives and lawyers of political prisoners, 20 people were arrested during the raid, but one man disappeared immediately after the arrest (see section 1.b). According to human rights groups, security forces did not have a warrant for the raid and denied detainees access to lawyers. The next day, FSB agents searched all the houses in the village of Strohanivka and searched unsuccessfully for four Crimean Tatars who were not at home during the previous day`s searches.
Crew officers cordoned off the village and set up checkpoints to inspect all vehicles. On 28 March, three of the men were arrested in Rostov-on-Don, Russia. Of the 24 men arrested between 27 and 28 March, five were charged with organising the activities of a terrorist organisation (Hizb ut-Tahrir, which is legal in Ukraine), which carries a sentence of up to life imprisonment. The others were charged with participating in the activities of a terrorist organization, which carries a sentence of up to 20 years in prison. On 30 March, all the men were transferred to Russia for pre-trial detention, where they remained from October. After the referendum, lawmakers in Crimea officially voted for secession from Ukraine and demanded its admission to Russia. However, the Sevastopol City Council requested separate approval of the port as a federal city. [48] On the same day, Russia formally approved the draft treaty on the admission of the self-proclaimed Republic of Crimea[49][50] and on March 18, 2014, the political annexation process was officially completed,[32] with the self-proclaimed independent Republic of Crimea signing a treaty of accession to the Russian Federation. [51] Membership was granted, but separately for each of its former constituent regions: the accession of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea as the Republic of Crimea – the same name as the short-lived self-proclaimed independent republic – and subsequent accession of Sevastopol as a federal city.
A post-annexation transition period, during which the Russian authorities are expected to resolve issues of integrating the new subjects “into the economic, financial, credit and legal system of the Russian Federation”, is expected to last until 1 January 2015. [52] Russian occupation authorities frequently torture prisoners and suffer other ill-treatment. A 2020 OHCHR report cited reports of “mock executions, beatings, electric shocks and sexual violence.” Victims of torture have few legal remedies, allowing the security forces to act with impunity. A 2020 KPH report noted that there was little evidence of violence by officials in the territory`s court records. In 1993, the Supreme Soviet of the Russian Federation adopted a resolution “confirming the Russian federal status of Sevastopol” and requesting a parliamentary committee to prepare the appropriate constitutional amendments and submit them to the Congress of People`s Deputies of Russia, but the Russian constitutional crisis of 1993 prevented this revision and the first revisions of the Constitution of Russia. which were adopted on 12 December 1993. Sevastopol is not listed as a federal subject. Three years later, the State Duma declared that Russia had the right to exercise sovereignty over Sevastopol,[34] but this resolution had no real effect. In 1997, an agreement was reached between the Russian and Ukrainian governments allowing the Black Sea Fleet to remain in Sevastopol until 2017.
Later, this was extended by 25 years until 2042, with a possible option to extend this period until 2047. In February 2014, Russian forces entered Ukraine`s Crimean peninsula and occupied it militarily. In March 2014, Russia announced that the peninsula was now part of the Russian Federation after a mock referendum violated Ukraine`s constitution. UN General Assembly Resolution 68/262 on “The territorial integrity of Ukraine” of 27 March 2014 and Resolution 74/168 on the “Situation of human rights in the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol, Ukraine” of 9 December 2019 called on States and international organizations not to recognize any change in the status of Crimea and reaffirmed the commitment of the United Nations to: recognize Crimea as part of Ukraine. In April 2014, the Ukrainian legislature (Verkhovna Rada) passed a law attributing responsibility for human rights violations in Crimea to the Russian Federation as an occupying state. The United States does not recognize the Russian Federation`s attempted “annexation” of Crimea. Russian law has been applied in Ukrainian Crimea since the Russian occupation and the so-called “annexation” of the peninsula.
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