Russia increases the pressure on the disloyal population in the occupied territories: surveillance, filtering, repression

Russia continues the policy of resettling Ukrainians from the occupied territories. During November, hundreds of local residents were deported from the left bank of the Kherson region, the Center of National Resistance reported in early December.

According to information, the deportation takes place under the guise of the so-called evacuation. But on the deportation lists are those people whom the occupying authorities suspect of being disloyal.

Meanwhile, the Russian occupying forces have stepped up filtering measures in the occupied territories of the Zaporozhye region, the head of the Zaporozhye regional military administration, Yury Malashko, said at a briefing on December 1. According to him, the occupation authorities have even created a special chatbot and are inviting local residents to send information about alleged saboteurs, spies and gun owners.

 

"They are checking who has passports of the Russian Federation"

 

Pavel Timofejev, a representative of the regional council of Zaporozhye, told "Novosti iz Azov" that initially the filtering measures were connected to the fact that the occupiers were trying to break the resistance of the local population. Now they are already trying to eradicate everything Ukrainian in the occupied territories.

"Now they are simply looking for citizens of Ukraine who did not agree to take a Russian passport. I will give a few examples. Lists are compiled for companies, institutions, organizations, regardless of ownership, in order to find out who has not yet received a Russian passport. They go door to door to find out who got it and who didn't," says Timofeev.

 

According to representatives, the situation is even worse in the villages. Because residents have to go to cities or large settlements for large purchases. The road to the cities is complicated by Russian roadblocks.  

 

"There are several roadblocks on the bus line, everyone is checked to see if they have a Russian passport. If a person has a Ukrainian passport, they are carefully checked, interrogated, and such conditions are created that other passengers are outraged that they are holding up the bus. Sometimes there are cases when the driver simply left a passenger with a Ukrainian passport at the checkpoint and drove on," Timofeyev said.

 

"Hard way through Crimea"

 

It is difficult for Ukrainians to leave the region of occupied Crimea, the representative claims. In particular, filtering measures are implemented at the administrative border with Crimea, in Csongar.

"If a person does not have a Russian passport, phones, social accounts, correspondence are checked very carefully. I can ask various provocative questions, including those related to support for the Russian Federation: "Who is shelling whom? Whose is Crimea?" The situation with these passports is much more complicated, because if a person has an exclusively Ukrainian passport, he may not be able to cross the administrative border with Crimea.

If a person has taken a Russian passport and wants to leave the borders of the country of the aggressor, they demand that he also have a Russian passport for abroad," said the representative.

 

Fines

 

In addition, the occupation authorities exerted economic pressure on the disloyal population, Timofeyev added. The occupiers introduced a fine for those who did not agree to take a Russian passport.

"They are introducing an increased rate of income tax for citizens of Ukraine - they are charging a rate of 30 percent. That is, you have to give a third of your income to the aggressor country in the form of taxes from that income just because you have a Ukrainian passport and did not agree to take a Russian one.

No one can demand to take any other passport, no one can impose any fines. "No one can deny a person social, medical and educational services, but Russia deliberately violates absolutely all these international rights," said the representative.

 

"They react badly to the Ukrainian passport"

 

The first deputy president of the Kherson regional council, Yuriy Sobolevski, told "Novosti iz Azov" that the occupation authorities have created such terrible conditions in the region that it is no longer possible to survive there without a Russian passport.

"If it's a small settlement, you have a vegetable garden, people have some supplies. And in most cases, if you do not have a Russian passport, it is really very difficult to survive, because there is practically no access to medical services, and access to the financial system is also difficult.

At the checkpoints, the Russian army reacts very badly to Ukrainian passports. And there they don't even ask the question: "Why haven't you taken your passport yet?". They already understand that a person who is currently without a Russian passport is 100 percent with an active position, indomitable and potentially a person who cooperates with the SBU and the Defense Forces of Ukraine. That is, they take an appropriate attitude towards him," explained Sobolevski.

 

Where were the Chersonese taken?

 

There is no systematic deportation of people to Russia, as was the case before the liberation of the right bank of the Kherson region, on the left bank. However, the occupation authorities continue to agitate the local population to move to Russian regions and call on them for the so-called evacuation, says the politician. People were taken to Yakutia, Novosibirsk and Tyumen.

"This primarily concerns the settlements located near the Dnieper, which are already in a state of humanitarian disaster. They want to solve it at the expense of our people, and they are primarily interested in children, their demographic problems. Depressed regions of the Russian Federation, which are sparsely populated, and where there is a free housing stock, are offered to them (inhabitants of the occupied territories - ed. author).

Another reason is that they want to thin out the population in the temporarily occupied territories, because they understand that from now on it is about people who do not support this occupation in the absolute majority, they are waiting for the de-occupation and they are simply forced to live under this terror," emphasizes Sobolevski.

 

Mariupol: "Complete control"

 

In the district of Mariupol, occupiers carry out filtering activities from time to time. In particular, at the end of November, cleaning operations continued for several days in Starodubivka in Manguš district, Petro Andriushchenko, adviser to the mayor of Mariupol, said at the time.

 

According to him, the village was closed for entry and exit. After inspecting Komishuvat and Demyanovka along the route to Crimea, the Russian security forces went to settlements in the north in the direction of Bojovo (Nikol region) and Rozhivka (Zaporozhye region), where a large number of Russian army reserves are located.

The representative of the Mariupol City Council, Dmytro Zabavin, told "Novosti Azov" that the Russian occupying forces are trying to completely control the villages and the city of Mariupol itself.

"They committed such mass crimes in Mariupol at the beginning of the occupation, so, unfortunately, the fate of thousands of people who did not pass the screening is still unknown. Now it's not a mass phenomenon, but they react to certain signals. This is, for example, like some accusations from the 30s under Stalin. Accordingly, they verify this information with the participation of the FSB and other criminal-repressive methods. Very often even children are targeted. Because children are more inclined to express protest, that they are not satisfied with their occupation. Accordingly, in so-called schools, if something is discovered in the child's behavior, in his posts on social networks, then problems arise for both the child and the parents," said Zabavin.

If a person wants to leave the area, he is forced to undergo numerous checks, says the people's representative.

"It is very difficult to go even through third countries, and those citizens, those Ukrainians, who have not yet received Russian passports are especially suspicious. Accordingly, these people are questioned: why they are leaving, why they did not get a Russian passport. There are certain repressive methods - search, checking the phone, checking all contents in the phone, checking contacts. "There are constant questions about whether there are connections with Ukrainian military personnel or law enforcement agencies," Zabavin said.

 

"They are getting rid of the indigenous population"

 

Residents returning to Mariupol also undergo filtering measures. The Russian occupation authorities want to get rid of most of the natives of the city and populate it with Russians who will be loyal to them, added Zabavin.

"More than 500,000 inhabitants lived in Mariupol. The Russians (army of the Russian Federation - ed.) came and killed, according to various estimates, more than 100,000 Ukrainians. More than 200,000 inhabitants of Mariupol, not accepting the Russian occupation, left the city. Approximately 100,000 people remained in Mariupol, not all of whom supported the occupier. This is evidenced by the fact that in the first year of the occupation, slightly more than 5,000 people received Russian passports, or five percent of those who stayed there," Zabavin says.

He is sure that the goal of the Russian authorities is to reduce the percentage of the population disloyal to them in the city. This is explained by the creation of unacceptable living conditions in Mariupol - lack of heating, normal medical care, due to which a certain number of people died. At the same time, he claims, the number of guest workers brought to Mariupol will soon equal the number of residents who will remain in the city.

 

"Another pressure before the elections"

 

The Central Election Commission of Russia recently decided to hold presidential elections in the occupied territories of Ukraine. Before that, the Council of the Federation of Russia, at its session on December 7, set the date of holding the presidential elections on March 17, 2024. The following day, on December 8, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced his intention to participate in the elections scheduled for March. Amendments to the Russian constitution adopted in 2020 allow him to run for a fifth presidential term.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine called Russia's plans to hold presidential elections in the occupied territories of Ukraine "illegal and worthless" and called on the international community to strongly condemn this intention of Moscow.

Kherson-based political scientist Dementiy Beli believes that the next phase of cleansing the disloyal population can be directly related to the preparations for the Russian presidential elections.

 

"The policy of terror is one of the main policies of the occupiers in the temporarily occupied territory. It hasn't stopped since day one and it continues. Because the resistance and sabotage of the Ukrainian population in the Kherson region continues. Therefore, the policy of terror continues," Beli said.

The Russian occupation authorities still cannot complete the process of issuing Russian passports to the local population, despite the unbearable conditions they have created in the region, says the political scientist.

"Many are still holding on, still waiting for de-occupation. But it is already mortally dangerous - not to take a Russian passport, because there are more and more controls, more and more measures to control the population," Beli emphasized.

According to him, there are mobile points for issuing Russian passports in remote villages, where the population that has not received passports is registered and dealt with. All this is in addition to the usual filtering measures, Beli added.

 

In September 2022, the Russian authorities announced the annexation of four partially occupied Ukrainian regions - Kherson, Zaporozhye, Donetsk and Luhansk. Ukraine and the West condemned this annexation attempt. Presidential elections in Russia and in the occupied territories are scheduled for March 2024. However, neither Kyiv nor Western countries recognize the results of the vote in the occupied territories.