After the annexation , on 16 May the new Russian authorities of Crimea issued a ban on the annual commemorations of the anniversary of the Deportation of the Crimean Tatars by Stalin in 1944 , citing " possibility of provocation by extremists " as a reason . Previously , when Crimea was controlled by Ukraine , these commemorations had taken place every year . The pro-Russian Crimean authorities also banned Mustafa Dzhemilev , a human rights activist , Soviet dissident , member of the Ukrainian parliament , and former Chairman of the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatars from entering Crimea . Additionally , Mejlis reported , that officers of Russia 's Federal Security Service ( FSB ) raided Tatar homes in the same week , on the pretense of " suspicion of terrorist activity " . The Tatar community eventually did hold commemorative rallies in defiance of the ban . In response Russian authorities flew helicopters over the rallies in an attempt to disrupt them . In May 2015 , a local activist , Alexander Kostenko , was sentenced to four years in a penal colony . His lawyer , Dmitry Sotnikov , said that the case was fabricated and that his client had been beaten and starved . Crimean prosecutor Natalia Poklonskaya announced that they were judging " not just Kostenko , but the very idea of fascism and nazism , which are trying to raise their head once again . " Sotnikov responded that " There are fabricated cases in Russia , but rarely such humiliation and physical harm . A living person is being tortured for a political idea , to be able to boast winning over fascism . " In June 2015 , Razom released a report compiling human rights abuses in Crimea . In its 2016 annual report , the Council of Europe made no mention of human rights abuses in Crimea because Russia had not allowed its monitors to enter
Deportation of the Crimean Tatars
Deportation of the Crimean Tatars
Annexation of Crimea by the Russian Federation