Pseudo-referenda continue in the temporarily occupied territories. In the occupied Donbas, the Russians are trying to create a picture of mass support for Russia.
This Channel 24 was told by the director of the Institute for Strategic Studies and Security, human rights activist Pavel Lysyansky. According to him, extras were brought in from the temporarily occupied Crimea for this purpose.
The imported Russians pretend to be residents of the Donbass and the Luhansk region and tell the cameras how long they have been waiting for these events.
“The occupiers are behaving very impudently”
At the same time, the real picture is quite different. Residents of the temporarily occupied territories are forced to participate in a pseudo-referendum.
“The invaders use repression and intimidation against those people who do not want to vote,” Lisyansky said.
According to the human rights activist, the scale of pressure on the population of the occupied Donbas is now much greater than it was at the pseudo-referendum on the status of Crimea in 2014.
Now the situation is somewhat different. There was forced mobilization in the Donbass. We know about the crimes committed in the temporarily occupied territories. This was not the case in Crimea at that time. The processes are similar, but in the Donbas everything is more powerful and tougher. And the occupiers are behaving very impudently,” Lisyansky said.
How the pseudo-referendum is going on in Donbas
According to the director of the Institute for Strategic Studies and Security, Russian the invaders put pressure on the residents of the temporarily occupied territories of Donetsk and Luhansk regions in every possible way.
Russians are doing door-to-door tours of houses. Armed people knock on the door, give out a ballot and make them check the box,” he noted.
At the same time, in some villages of the Luhansk and Donetsk regions, pseudo-referendums are not held at all . Lisyansky suggested that this was due to the fact that the invaders did not have time to prepare a good picture for Russian television there.
Russians are blackmailing collaborators
To ensure attendance at the referendum show, Russia brought in its occupation apparatus. We are talking about the occupation administrations, the so-called “people's militia”, employees of municipal institutions.
According to our calculations, Russia pays the wages of about 300 thousand people. These people are faced with a choice: if you want to continue to receive money, then come to the pseudo-referendum, and if not, get a criminal case,” Lisyansky said.
Who is forced to “vote” at the pseudo-referendum
As the human rights activist said, the occupiers are trying to force several categories to “vote” at once.
- Head physicians of city hospitals were ordered to bring them to “sites ” all staff . If this does not happen, then the occupiers threaten to open a “criminal case” against the head of the medical institution and all those involved in the “sabotage”.
- Also, the miners received the command to take part in pseudo-voting. To do this, they even suspended work at some mines.
- Pseudo-referendums are actively attracting Russian workers who have come for the so-called “restoration” of the temporarily occupied territories. Russians are also driven to the polling stations and forced to tick off the ballots.
Lisyansky added that the name and surname of the voter is not indicated on the ballots.
The Russian invaders have lists of people who must vote. According to these lists, they will count the ballots. All this is a “fellow letter,” said the human rights activist.
Pavel Lisyansky spoke about Russian provocations in the temporarily occupied territories: watch the video
Pseudo-referendums in the occupied territories: latest news
- The occupiers continue to hold a propaganda show in the form of pseudo-referendums in the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine. Russians now go to crowded places and demand to “vote”.
- Occupiers are forcing Ukrainian prisoners of war to participate in the so-called “referendum”. The Office of the President emphasized that this is a procedure of “legalized” violence.
- The SBU intercepted the conversation of infidels, which sheds light on the so-called “referenda”. Residents of the temporarily occupied territories, in which there are relatives among the “leadership of the L/DPR”, communicated by phone. Judging by the conversation, the results of the quasi-referenda “summed up” in early September.
