Blind Activist's Family Faces Eviction in Crimea Amid Health Crisis

The family of the Crimean blind activist Igor Nikitenko from Dzhankoy may end up on the street.

According to Crimea.Realii, this was reported by one of the Crimean human rights activists on condition of anonymity. According to him, Igor Nikitenko's mother, Lyubov Nikitenko, has long suffered from chronic illnesses. In October 2020, the woman was scheduled to undergo a CT scan of the lungs, after which a stage 4 malignancy was detected in the right lung. After this terrible news, she had panic attacks.

"I became very afraid that there would be no one to take care of me and my children and no one to help us, as we have no close relatives. Therefore, I started to think that I needed to find a person with whom I could conclude a life-long maintenance agreement for my family (me and my children with group 1 disabilities), and in return this person would receive a 3-room apartment after our death, because our income is only a pension," Lyubov told the human rights activist.

According to her, as a result, she entered into an agreement with unknown people, after which she did not receive any assistance from them, and pays the utility bills herself. In the summer of 2023, she received a phone call from the people with whom she had entered into the agreement and was informed that they were filing a lawsuit to evict Lyubov and her disabled children. The woman claims that she was deceived and that instead of a life care contract, they falsely signed a contract for the sale of her apartment.

According to activist Igor Nikitenko, the mother did not warn him about her plans.

"Only my mother was the owner of the apartment, and my sister and I were only registered here. I'm afraid that now we will end up on the street, we have no relatives and nowhere to go," the human rights activist said.

According to the human rights activist, Igor Nikitenko has been subjected to repression by Russian security forces for a long time for his bold civic position.

Earlier, in the Crimean village of Morske near Sudak, Russian security forces demolished a trailer in which Rustem Useinov, a veteran of the Crimean Tatar national movement, lived. Before that, in 2021, the Russian occupiers demolished his house because he had not managed to register it before 2014.

Олеся Ланцман