PART 4 A YEAR AFTER: MAIN VIOLATIONS OF HUMAN RIGHTS IN CRIMEA At the same time, about ten unknown persons organized a provocation at a press conference of the coordinators of the Committee for Protection of the Rights of the Crimean Tatars. They splashed a liquid green disinfectant onto the speakers. Their actions have been planned in advance, the jars with the green substance were brought by at least three people. May 18 − Memorial Day for Victims of Deportation of Crimean Tatars On May 16, 2014, the Crimean Prime Minister Sergey Aksyonov with his decree banned all public events in the Crimea until June 6, including the mourning demon- stration to mark the 70th Anniversary of the Crimean Tatar Deportation. Mr. Aksyonov justiR ed this decision as follows: ‘In view of the ongoing events in many cities in the south-east of Ukraine, resulting in civilian population deaths and injuries, in order to eliminate possible provocations from extremists who are able to enter the territory of the Republic of Crimea, and to avoid disruption of the holiday season in the Republic of Crimea, public event ban on the territory of the Republic of Crimea is intro- duced until June 6, 2014.’ In addition to this prohibition, the presence of Russian military, law enforcement agencies, and military equipment was increased in Simferopol on May 18. The Crimean Tatars were forced to abandon the planned routes of mourning proces- sions and organized the events in smaller groups and in the other, non-public, places. ‘This is a gross violation of the rights of Crimean Tatars. Moreover, it is con- trary to the decree of the president Putin who assured to take measures to safeguard the rights of the Crimean Tatar people.’ The leader of the Crimean Tatar people, Mustafa Dzhemilev, in an inter- view to LIGABusinessInform on May 17, 2014. The same situation was in 2015: the local authorities again banned or signiR cantly restricted holding of events to mark the 71th anniversary of the deportation of the Crimean Tatars. For example, in Simferopol, denial grounds were the unavailability of pre-approved sites for public events due to prior booking on May 18 by other NGOs. The members of the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatars and a number of activists (Nariman Dzhelyal, Shevket Kaybullaev, Leonid Kuzmin) were warned by the Crimean Prose- cutor’s O7 ce about the inadmissibility of holding public events. On May 18, at the Simferopol city boundaries, the OMON riot police and tra7 c po- lice o7 cers detained the participants of the automobile rally dedicated to the Day 114