The first president of Crimea was arrested for two days in Simferopol

The first president of Crimea, Yuri Meshkov, was arrested for two days on charges of disobeying the lawful demands of the police. Meshkov was detained during a festive concert dedicated to the fifth anniversary of the so-called annexation of Crimea, and Vladimir Putin's speech on Lenin Square in Simferopol on March 19.

Meshkov and activists Ilya Bolshedvorov, Oleg Kocherov and Cossack chieftain Sergei Akimov were stopped by police officers on the square and demanded to show their documents. After refusing to do so and go to the police department to clarify his identity, the police said that they had received a message that Meshkov was allegedly in a public place in a state of alcoholic and drug intoxication.

Later, the forensic medical examination to which Meshkov was subjected denied this. All the activists were detained and taken to the district police department, where only a report was drawn up against Meshkov on disobedience to the police. The next day, the Central District Court of Simferopol found him guilty and sentenced him to two days of administrative arrest.

Meshkov, in turn, believes that he was persecuted because of an attempt to hold a rally on March 19 to criticize the Crimean authorities, which was not approved by the city administration and did not take place.

Yuri Meshkov is the first and only president of Crimea from 1994 to 1995. In this post, he defended the need for a rapprochement between Crimea and Russia, up to joining. In 2011, he was deported from Crimea with a ban on entry to Ukraine for five years.