"Ordinary people will suffer": in the parliament they proposed to introduce a criminal punishment for not recognizing Crimea as Ukrainian

A document on criminal responsibility for non-recognition of the Crimea and some areas of Donbass by the Ukrainian territories has been submitted to the Verkhovna Rada.

The authors of the initiative proposed to clarify the article of the criminal code "On the encroachment on the territorial integrity and inviolability of Ukraine."

“Willful non-recognition of the affiliation of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol, certain districts, cities, towns and villages of the Donetsk and Lugansk regions to the territory of Ukraine” will be punished with imprisonment of up to three years.

According to TASS, the bill was registered on July 5, after which the document was considered by the relevant committee of the parliament. On Tuesday, July 9, the document was distributed among the deputies for review.

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The current version of the Criminal Code provides for up to three years of restriction or imprisonment for actions aimed at changing borders, or for public calls for this. A similar punishment of seven to 12 years in prison is provided if such actions resulted in the death of people or other serious consequences.

As follows from the document published on the website of the Rada, its authors are Rada speaker Andrei Paruby, as well as deputies Victoria Syumar and Maria Ionova. Date of consideration of the initiative is not yet specified.

Recall, Crimea became the Russian region on March 18, 2014, following a referendum, in which more than 96% voted for reunification with Russia.

“These are repressive measures”

The emergence of such an initiative may be due to the fact that in Ukraine a huge number of people consider Crimea as part of the Russian Federation, noted Deputy of the State Council of Crimea Vladislav Ganzhara.

“They recognize this, treat it with understanding. In this regard, of course, the Ukrainian authorities, despite the five-year brainwashing of their own people, despite the anti-Russian rhetoric, could not overcome absolute reality, ”said the parliamentarian in an interview with RT.

According to him, it is quite difficult to imagine how such a bill will work.

"The emergence of such an initiative once again shows Kiev's weakness ... They (such initiatives. - RT ) are born a lot, but it all shows how Ukraine treats human rights, how Ukraine treats freedom of speech," the deputy concluded .

Lawyer and international law specialist Maria Yarmush agrees that the new bill is a good example of the legislative process in Ukraine, where fundamental rights and freedoms of a person are grossly violated.

“First of all, the right to freedom of speech and the right to freedom of opinion and expression of this opinion ... These are repressive measures,” the lawyer said in an interview with RT.

According to her, the bill is a political pressure on people's opinion.

“This is political pressure on the opinions of people with the threat of criminal prosecution for ideas, for thoughts, for opinions. Of course, I do not know whether this law will pass or not. If you follow common sense, such an initiative should not pass even in the first reading, ”explained Yarmush.

“Now lawmakers are ready to tell citizens under threat of prison what to say about Crimea. All of this speaks of “democracy” in Ukraine, which, as we know, seeks for Europe, ”a source in the Batkivshchyna Party told RT.

"The war between the representatives of the old and the new government"

The topic of Crimea is constantly raised by Ukrainian politicians, including at the highest level. On the eve, the President of Ukraine, Vladimir Zelensky, suggested that Russian leader Vladimir Putin hold talks and discuss the Crimea and the situation in the Donbas.

At the beginning of his work as head of state, Zelensky asserted that he believed in the return of Crimea to Ukraine. However, the Russian president has repeatedly said that the status of the peninsula is not negotiable.

In addition, the ex-president of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko called the recent return of Russia to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) as the first step "for Russians to begin to seek recognition of the illegal annexation of the Crimea and the occupation of Donbass."

Deputies of the Verkhovna Rada have repeatedly made aggressive statements regarding the Crimea, in particular, on the infrastructure of the peninsula built by the Russian side. In 2018, the Ukrainian deputy Igor Mosiychuk called on the special services of Ukraine to find assistants for the destruction of the Crimean bridge.

Earlier it became known that the Ukrainian border guards will interview residents of the Crimea, entering the country, about the purposes of their visit.

As Yusuf Kurkchi, deputy Ukrainian minister for temporarily occupied territories and internally displaced persons, said in June, a survey will be introduced at a checkpoint on the border with the Crimean peninsula in the near future.

Ukrainian political scientist and economist Oleksandr Dudchak noted that the new initiative on non-recognition of the Crimea by Ukraine should be considered against the background of the upcoming elections to the Rada and the corresponding political campaign.

In his opinion, such actions set the task of obtaining certain advantages in elections.

The RT source in the Radical Party drew attention to the fact that the deputies from the Bloc of Petro Poroshenko and the Popular Front prepared a new initiative.

“They did it not by chance before the parliamentary elections. They are doing everything to narrow the space for maneuver of President Vladimir Zelensky. - he said. “Relations with Russia are sharpened on purpose, so that even a hint of negotiations could not be.”

The population in the east and south of the country does not consider Russia an enemy, the source of RT in the “Self-help” party notes. According to him, after the choice of a new president, it turned out that the population is against the radicals and is ready to establish relations with Russia.

“Zelensky understands this perfectly well and is ready to make compromises. But the representatives of the old government, who understand that the implementation of the Minsk agreements by Ukraine will lead to a lot of questions, are not ready for negotiations. For example, what prevented to do this earlier? ”- said the source RT.

“The war between the representatives of the new and old power leads to the fact that ordinary people will suffer. Perhaps you need to compromise and let people live, not survive? ”He added.