Human rights group: Russia is forcing Crimeans to participate in election
The authorities of Russian-occupied Crimea are forcing people to participate in the elections to the State Duma using threats of dismissal or decrease in wages in the event of failure to comply. Crimean Human Rights Group representative Olha Skrypnyk described the situation on 112 Ukraine TV.
"We have several complaints about the fact that the de facto "Crimean government" uses the so-called administrative resources to force people to go to these elections, for example, under the threat of dismissal or reduction of salary. Now we collect this information, and if any facts are confirmed, we will write about them in more detail," she added. "From the point of view of the international law, these elections are not legitimate, they cannot be considered lawful."
Skrypnyk expressed the opinion that it is unlikely that Russia will pay attention to the opinion of Ukraine about the impossibility of holding elections on the occupied territories. "Russia once again is trying to legalize its presence in the Crimea," she noted.
On September 18th elections to the State Duma of the Russian Federation will be held. The election campaign also continues in the Crimea, a Ukrainian territory that was annexed by Russia in the spring of 2014. On Election Day the Russian Federation intends to open four polling stations in its diplomatic missions in Kyiv, Lviv, Odessa and Kharkiv.
On September 8th, the Verkhovna Rada adopted a resolution which calls on the parliamentarians of foreign states, parliamentary assemblies and international organizations to refrain from participating in the monitoring of illegal parliamentary elections in the Russian-occupied Crimea, and to not recognize their results under any circumstances.