Center for Civil Liberties: More than 30 Ukrainians are imprisoned in Russia
The Head of the Center for Civil Liberties, Olexandra Matviychuk, reported that Russia continues to hold no less than 31 people behind bars after the release of Nadiya Savchenko. Sixteen of them are Crimean Tatars. The Center noted that Oleg Sentsov, Alexey Chirnyi, Alexander Kolchenko and Gennady Afanasiev are imprisoned in Russia as so-called Crimean terrorists.
Ukrainian citizens, Mykola Karpyuk and Stanislav Klykh, were imprisoned in a fabricated criminal case against senior Ukrainian officials for crimes committed on the territory of the Russian Federation during the First Chechen War in the mid-1990s. Alexander Kostenko was arrested and imprisoned in Russia for participation in Euromaidan.
Russian investigators have also charged Valentine Vygovsky, Yuri Soloshenko and Victor Shura with espionage. Sergey Litvinov is wanted for the “Punisher” case. Hayster Dzhemilev is being sought in the case of pressure against Mustafa Dzhemilev, Matviychuk noted.
According to advocates, 19 people are awaiting sentences in annexed Crimea. Ahtem Chiygoz, Mustafa Degermendzhi and Ali Asanov were convicted in the “February 26th” case. Andrei Kolomiets faces sentencing for Euromaidan while Yuri Ilchenko faces sentencing as well for the blogging incident.
Moscow stated that it has no obligation to honor the Minsk Agreements because it signed it as a guarantor but not as a participant and Russia had no intention to implement these agreements in the first place.