PART 4 A YEAR AFTER: MAIN VIOLATIONS OF HUMAN RIGHTS IN CRIMEA put pressure not only on the Archbishop, but also on the priests. Many of them were forced to leave Crimea. Since the beginning of 2015, the local government has continued its advance on the UOC-KP property. The rental payment for the premises of the main Crime- an temple was unreasonably high and amounted to 90906 rubles per month. The Crimean authorities are trying to take away the land plot that belongs to the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Kyivan Patriarchate in Simferopol in order to hand over it to the Russian FSB. Kliment, the Archbishop of Simferopol and Crimea, was oT ered to abandon this plot voluntarily. Not even waiting for his re- ply, the head of the Crimean government Sergey Aksyonov approved the act of handover of this plot to FSB. In May 2015, the Ministry of Property and Land Relations of Crimea organized the auction for the right to sign a lease for the part of the premises in use of the UOC-KP, namely the Crimean Orthodox Spiritual Center. Namely, it is a space with the area of 112.6 sq. m. on the ground U oor of the building at 17, Sevastopol St., Simferopol. As a result, the auction winner was a public non-proR t movement on promotion of the small and medium business in the Republic of Crimea ‘RAZUM’, which is engaged in business consulting29. The Crimean Ministry informed the representa- tives of the UOC-KP that on August 21, 2014 the lease of the part of the premises with the area of 112.6 sq. m. on the ground U oor of the building at 17, Sevas- topol St. expired. However, the Ministry informed about it only in 2015, after the auction. The representatives of the UOC-KP appealed to the Arbitration Court of Crimea in order to annul the decision of the Crimean Ministry on the part of the premises with the area of 112.6 sq. m., which since 2004 had been in the use of the UOC-KP. However, the Ministry of Property and Land Relations of Crimea R led a counter- claim. On January 21, 2016, the Arbitration Court of Crimea dismissed all claims of the representatives of the UOC-KP, however, it granted a counter-claim of the Crimean Ministry. The court ordered not only to evict the premises with an area of 112.6 square me- ters, but also to recover from the Crimean Orthodox Spiritual Center a penalty in the amount of 591,128.65 rubles. In addition, if part of the premises is occupied by the NGO ‘RAZUM’, all its employees and customers will pass through the premis- 29 Regulation on the public non-proR t movement on promotion of the small and medium business in the Republic of Crimea ‘RAZUM’: http://kryminvestproekt.nethouse.ru/static/000/000/516/343/doc/a6/93/ace0ee14f6a5c03 a95d2256a0624af22be92.pdf 122
The Peninsula of Fear: Chronicle of Occupation and Violation of Human Rights in Crimea Page 121 Page 123