Searches as a tool of intimidation and pressure on the opponents of the occupation of Crimea became a common practice as early as 2014. Members of the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar People experienced it firsthand when the so-called "bailiffs" and representatives of the FSB broke into their building. After an 11-hour search, the property of the Mejlis was inventoried and attached.

By the end of September 2014, 30-40 searches were carried out in the homes of the activists of the national movement of the Crimean Tatars, members of the Mejlis, as well as in mosques, madrassas and libraries. Thereafter, the searches have been getting increasingly frequent, as evidenced by the following figures:

There are records of cruel treatment as well. According to Emil Kurbedinov, a lawyer, FSB officers burst into the house of Ernest Seytosmanov in the village of Tylove, Balaklava Raion at the end of April 2021 to conduct a search and set about strangling him until he started losing consciousness. The search on 05/11/2021 in the Dubki district near Simferopol ended tragically with the death of a peaceful Uzbek Muslim Nabi Rakhimov who was shot for allegedly "armed resistance to law enforcement officers".

Although the repressive machine is directed against any activists – including the former pro-Russian supporters of the so-called Crimean Spring and members of religious denominations banned in Russia, such as Jehovah 's Witnesses – searches are mainly carried out in private households of the Crimean Tatars. For example, 53 dwellings out of 57 invaded by the security forces in 2017 belonged to the Crimean Tatars (64 out of 86 – in 2019). According to the Crimean Tatar Resource Center (CRC), there is a growing pattern of mass searches followed by mass arrests on suspicion of participation in a peaceful pan-Islamic organization Hizb ut-Tahrir (declared terrorist in 2003 in Russia but quite legal in Ukraine and in most of the democratic countries around the world). In 2017, there were 28 such arrests, against 127 in 2018 and 157 in 2019.

In return, from 06/03 to 09/03/2021, the elders of the Crimean Tatars drafted and published a joint statement against repression and in support of all Crimean political prisoners. This initiative came from the Nizhniohirsk, Bakhchysaray, Simferopol, Kirovske, Sovetsky, Bilohirsk, Lenine and Krasnohvardiyske Raions of Crimea, and from the municipality of Sudak (a total of 20 groups of elders). They recorded a video that they distributed with the help of the Crimean Solidarity. The initiative caused a massive public outcry. The text of the appeal was distributed in the Crimean Tatar, Russian and English languages.

Meanwhile, officers of the so-called "prosecutor’s office" of the Nyzhniohirsky Raion of Crimea detected some "public calls for extremist activities" in the video message. The occupation administration pointed out that terms like "infringement", "intimidation", "lawlessness", "injustice” and calls to "help everyone who is under oppression" indicate the promotion of a "negative attitude towards the law enforcement and judicial officials".

Following the check, the elderly activist Akhmadzhon Kadyrov was warned by Mark Petrenko, the so-called "district prosecutor and a senior justice adviser", about the inadmissibility of breaking the law as provided for in Federal Law No. 114-FZ On Countering the Extremist Activities. In addition, he was warned about future prosecution in the event of failure to comply with the recommendations prescribed in the warning.

On the whole, the attempts of the occupants to intimidate the residents of the occupied peninsula and thereby to put an end to public activism have failed to get traction. Photo and video footage of searches and subsequent detentions spread rapidly. Recorded facts and eyewitness accounts form the basis for reports of the human rights organizations, official statements, international resolutions and the like. In mainland Ukraine, based on the evidence collected, the Prosecutor's Office of the ARC conducts criminal proceedings under Part 2 Article 162 (violation of the right to private life and home) and Part 2 Article 146 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine (unlawful imprisonment).

However, in Russia there is much harsher persecution of the so-called "extremists" and "terrorists" than in Crimea, in particular of Muslims suspected of having ties with Hizb ut-Tahrir. The reason could be the absence of such powerful political or social force, party or organization in Russia that would act in their defense so regularly, consistently and strongly. However, the dynamics of the Russian repressions, their growing scale and bleak outlook of the future raise acute concerns about the likelihood of a similar scenario in Crimea.