WASHINGTON
The U.S. on Monday slammed the deteriorating rights environment in Crimea and called on Russian President Vladimir Putin to end his country’s occupation of the territory.
“Over the last year, the human rights situation in Crimea has deteriorated dramatically, with mounting repression of minority communities and faiths, in particular Crimean Tatars, and systematic denial of fundamental freedoms,” State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said in a statement.
“Local residents have been detained, interrogated, and disappeared and NGOs and independent media have been driven out of the peninsula. These brutalities are unacceptable and we call on Russia to stop further abuses,” she added.
Psaki’s comments come as the one-year anniversary of Russia’s annexation of the Crimean Peninsula nears. Russia annexed the peninsula last March following a referendum that has been widely discredited by the West. The vote was held under the watchful eye of Russian security forces, the existence of whom was initially denied by Moscow.
According to Putin, Crimea was “transformed into a castle” ready for unexpected developments during last year’s referendum, where an overwhelming majority voted to secede from Ukraine and join Russia.
Psaki said Monday that the vote was a “sham” that was held “in clear violation of Ukrainian law and the Ukrainian constitution.”
The episode marked a low point in relations between the West and Russia following the end of the Cold War, and continues to stoke concerns in Europe that Russia could take similar actions elsewhere along its periphery.
In a forceful defense of his role in the annexation, Putin said in a documentary broadcast on Russian state television on Sunday that its success was due to his personal involvement.
“Do you know what our advantage was?” asked Putin. “It was that I personally was involved in this operation.”
“In light of what was happening during that time in Ukraine, we couldn’t leave the people of Crimea alone,” he said.
In response to the annexation, the U.S. and EU established the first in what would become a series of sanctions on Russia and its allies.
Those sanctions will remain in place until Russia relinquishes control of the territory, Psaki said.
“This week, as Russia attempts to validate its cynical and calculated ‘liberation’ of Crimea, we reaffirm that sanctions related to Crimea will remain in place as long as the occupation continues,” she said.
