Head of Prosecutor’s Office of Autonomous Republic of Crimea: Russia’s nationalization of Massandra is a war crime

The head of the Prosecutor’s Office of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and Sevastopol, Iрor Ponochovny, has said that Russia’s nationalization of the Massandra National Production and Agrarian Association is a war crime, Dzerkalo Tuzhdnia reports.

According to the head of the prosecutor’s office, in accordance with the IV Geneva Convention for the Protection of Civilian Population in Time of War in 1949, the occupying state is prohibited from appropriating both public and private property in the occupied territory.

“The occupying state has the right to use public property only for military purposes. In this case, after the occupation of the peninsula by Russia, Massandra’s property was nationalized, actually expropriated, transferred to federal ownership – to the Administrative Department of the President of the Russian Federation, then returned to “the ownership of the Republic of Crimea”, respectively, there was no military need for such appropriation and transfer of property,” explained Ihor Ponochovny, adding that the prosecutor’s office is investigating several episodes related to the Massandra property.

In particular, the appropriation and sale of vineyards land in Gurzuf, production has been opened against the “director” of “Massandra” Yanina Pavlenko, who unauthorizedly opened a 240-year-old bottle of Jerez de la Frontera for Vladimir Putin and Silvio Berlusconi.

“We have a large case on the appropriation of public and private property in Crimea, within the framework of which numerous facts of seizure, nationalization and federalization of state property of Ukraine were recorded. These are facts of large-scale and systematic appropriation of property, which makes it possible to qualify the actions of the Russian occupation administration in Crimea as a war crime,” the prosecutor added.