The occupational authority in Crimea confessed plans to confiscate another 720 properties, constituting a war crime
The illegitimate “parliament” in the temporarily occupied Crimea has “nationalised” another 720 properties on the peninsula, Russian propagandistic RIA Novosti news agency reported.
“We are talking about adding 113 new items to the property list. This is the property of foreign persons associated with foreign states that carry out unfriendly events against Russia. Such property will be nationalised,” the agency quoted Vladimir Konstantinov, the so-called head of the Russian-controlled Crimean “parliament”, as saying.
Among the nationalised properties are the Crimean Brewery, the facilities of the Nemo Dolphinariums in Feodosia, Sudak and Alushta, Saki Mineral Waters, the Zeleny Cape Sanatorium and Resort Complex, the property of Lviv businessman Oleh Genshaft and former MP and Ombudsman for human rights Lyudmyla Denisova.
With the onset of Russia’s attempts to annex Crimea in 2014, the occupying authorities in the region repeatedly carried out the so-called “nationalization” of property belonging to Ukrainian state and private owners.
The first significant stage took place in 2014 when the Russian authorities in Crimea “nationalised” Ukrainian enterprises, banks, sanatoriums, and real estate that had previously belonged to the Ukrainian state. These included, for example, Chornomornaftohaz Oil and Gas Company and Massandra Winery.
At the “11 Years of War: Crimea – Starting Point” Forum the Representative of the President of Ukraine in the Autonomous Republic of Crimea Olha Kuryshko reported that Russian occupiers illegally alienated in total over 4,000 properties.
Ukraine and the international community consider these actions illegal appropriations of property that violate international law. Kyiv has repeatedly emphasised that after the recovery of Crimea, all acts of ‘nationalization’ will be annulled, and the property will be returned to its owners.
Most often, the Russian occupying authorities state that the funds received from the sale of alienated property go to support militants in the war against the Ukrainian People.
Earlier, the Ukrainian President’s Office head, Mykhailo Podolyak, stated that when the peninsula is recovered, Russians who bought real estate in Crimea will have to leave the peninsula and demand compensation for the loss of property from Russia.
Additionally, in November 2023, the Permanent Court of Arbitration in the Hague ruled in favour of DTEK’s claim against the aggressor country for seized assets in temporarily occupied Crimea. The arbitration awarded $267 million in damages to the Ukrainian energy company to be made payable by the Russian state, which accrues interest and legal costs until it is paid.
In April 2023, the Permanent Court of Arbitration ordered the Russian Federation to pay $5 billion in compensation to the Naftogaz company for financial losses and lost property in Crimea, dating back to 2014.
Read also: Russia’s forced demographic changes in Crimea violate international law – Amnesty International
Previously, Mykyta Petrovets, a lawyer at the Regional Center for Human Rights, provided a detailed account of how Russia is altering the demographics of the Crimean Peninsula. He denounced this policy of the occupying state as colonialist.
Due to their distrust in the statistics published by the Russian Federation, Crimean human rights defenders at the Regional Center for Human Rights are challenging them in order to ascertain the full scale of this war crime. However, they estimate that Russia has illegally relocated between 500,000 to 800,000 of its citizens to this Ukrainian territory, according to various estimates.
Petrovets’ is sure that Russia has begun to implement its entire “arsenal of colonial policy” in the newly occupied territories, honed over years of Crimea’s temporary occupation.
