http://goo.gl/vDeyrQ

http://goo.gl/vDeyrQ

Alexandra (nickname Shura) Ryazanceva, a Maidan activist from Yalta, Crimea, was returning home from the mainland with fellow activists and journalists when their cars were stopped at a checkpoint blockade set up by Crimean “self-defense forces” and Berkut soldiers.  After finding a Ukrainian flag in the trunk of her car and a tattoo on Ryazanceva’s forearm honoring the “Heaven’s Hundred” (fallen heroes of the Maidan), the “self-defense” and Berkut soldiers became enraged.  The activists and journalists were subjected to physical and psychological torture (beaten, kicked, dragged by the hair, guns fired close to their heads, threatened with maiming and killing), and held captive, first in Armyansk and then in a military base in Sevastopol. They were released on March 11.  Ryazanceva was appalled to recognizes her torturers in video footage shown on March 13 on Russian Channel 1 news, which reported that the checkpoint forces had repelled a…