[Witness spoke in Russian, interpreted as follows:]
As you rightly mentioned, as soon as the Russian Federation entered Crimea, it got rid of all democratic institutions. They were all put under the control of Russian occupiers. You could say only what was to the liking of the new government.
From day one, we've seen abductions and assassinations. We have 49 cases of abductions to date. We have found only six bodies, and these had signs of torture; the majority were never discovered. Eleven people were able to escape to mainland Ukraine. The rest of them remain. We don't know where they are. We believe there is great likelihood that they are no longer alive.
We see fewer abductions and assassinations now, because there was a big outcry at the beginning, but the arrests keep going. There are searches done under the pretext of searching for weapons or banned literature. In the case of weapons, sure, but “banned literature” isn't a clear term for Ukrainians, because after Ukraine obtained its independence, no literature was banned or forbidden. However, Russians have a long list of literature that is forbidden, and it's a crime to read it. As of April 14, the list contains about 3,000 to 6,000 titles. The officers of the FSB, the Russian federal security service, who come to do the searches don't even know what they're searching for. They do not have this huge list. They just confiscate whatever they don't like or anything that's not written in the Russian language. Sometimes they confiscate our Quran, because they do not know what it is.
If they want to find something, they will bring it with them. For example, they will bring ammunition and plant it during a search. These searches are very different from the searches that went on during the Soviet times. I had over 10 searches performed during the Soviet times. They would come and say, “We've received information that you have anti-Soviet literature. Please give it over, because we'll search your house.” Even if you gave over some literature, they would still search your house. There was a certain process. Right now, there is no due process. They come and say, “We have some information that you have weapons, narcotics, or banned literature”, and with no warrant they just enter the house. They damage the house. They humiliate the dignity of the people who are being searched. We think they are aiming at provoking people to retaliate in order to further exacerbate the conflict.