The human rights initiative 'Crimean Solidarity' announced it is ceasing operations after being designated a 'foreign agent' by the Russian Ministry of Justice. The decision took effect nearly a month after the ministry added the group to the registry on June 26.
In a statement, the organization said the 'foreign agent' status is perceived as 'a political act of pressure — a label used to isolate and discredit' the work of human rights defenders. Activists emphasized that they had carefully studied the legislation and saw no way to continue their activities in the previous format.
From now on, the website and social media pages of 'Crimean Solidarity' will no longer be updated.
The movement was founded in 2016, after Russia's annexation of the Crimean peninsula. Over ten years, its members documented cases of political persecution, supported families of detainees and those under arrest, and provided legal assistance. The group's focus frequently fell on cases against Crimean Tatars and Muslims accused of involvement with Hizb ut-Tahrir (an organization designated as terrorist in Russia).
One of 'Crimean Solidarity''s coordinators, Crimean Tatar human rights defender Server Mustafayev, was detained in 2018 and in 2020 sentenced by the Southern District Military Court to 14 years in a strict-regime penal colony on charges of organizing and participating in the activities of a terrorist organization.
Last year, the human rights defenders reported pressure on lawyers handling cases of Crimean Tatars, the persecution of women in the Hizb ut-Tahrir case, and the arrest of a blind man — allegedly for resisting police during a search.
The Russian Ministry of Justice, justifying the inclusion of the movement in the registry, stated that the organization 'disseminated unreliable information about decisions taken by public authorities of the Russian Federation' and also 'interacted with participants of international terrorist organizations and with state authorities of Ukraine.'