Ukraine’s Supreme Court recognizes NBU’s resolution on Crimea residents as violation

The Plenum of the Supreme Court of Ukraine ruled that the resolution of the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) on recognition of the Crimean residents as non-residents of Ukraine is contrary to the effective legislation.

According to the Krym.Realii (Crimea.Realities) news portal, expert of the Ukrainian Helsinki Human Rights Group Darya Svyrydova informed that the Crimea residents filed over ten lawsuits to revoke the NBU’s decision. The Kyiv Administrative Court of Appeals now considers one of the complaints, drawn up with the support of the lawyers of the Regional Centre for Human Rights. Within consideration of the case, the Supreme Court of Ukraine issued the ruling to recognize that the NBU had exceeded its powers. The ruling was a surprise for the human rights defenders.

“The Plenum of the Supreme Court concluded that the NBU’s decision relates to the law on free trade area by no means. This is actually a voluntaristic decision of the regulator. Pursuant to the Article 19 of the Constitution of Ukraine, the National Bank of Ukraine shall act exclusively within the law, and the explanatory note to this resolution stipulates that it was adopted in execution of the law on free trade area (actually it was not). Currently, the defendant has no other explanations,” lawyer of the Regional Centre for Human Rights Serhiy Zayets states.

The human rights activists hope this ruling of the Supreme Court will be followed by the decision of the Court of Appeals in favor of the so-called non-residents. Otherwise, they will try to appeal to the Supreme Court, and if it fails, the lawyers are already preparing the documents for lodging an application with the European Court of Human Rights.

As a reminder, November 3, 2014, the National Bank of Ukraine adopted the resolution No. 699, equaling the citizens of Ukraine with Crimean registration to the non-residents. The commercial banks on the mainland Ukraine have subsequently began to block accounts of Crimean residents, barred them from loan granting, getting transfers and performing other financial transactions.