Members of the European Parliament urge the EU to impose sanctions against Putin
Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) have urged the European Union to impose personal sanctions against Russian President Vladimir Putin and 28 other people involved in the illegal treatment of Nadiya Savchenko – a citizen of Ukraine, military pilot and deputy of the Verkhovna Rada.
57 deputies sent an appeal to the High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Federica Mogherini. "We, the deputies of the European Parliament believe that the EU should immediately react to the continuing shameful and flagrant violations of international law and the Minsk agreements by Russia," stated the appeal.
In addition to sanctions against Putin, the deputies call for the blacklisting of Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) Director Alexander Bortnikov, the head of the Investigative Committee of Russia, Alexander Bastrykin and several of his subordinates, the head of the Foreign Affairs Committee in the State Duma, Aleksey Pushkov. The deputies also included prosecutors, judges and other officials involved in the falsification of materials of Savchenko’s case, in her illegal detention, arrest, and in bringing trumped-up charges of murder and illegal border crossing.
In addition, members of parliament ask to impose sanctions against the leader of the self-proclaimed Luhansk People's Republic (LPR), Igor Plotnitsky.
Nadiya Savchenko has been charged with the murder of two Russian journalists. It is widely believed that Savchenko was in fact captured by LPR separatists in eastern Ukraine and was illegally transported to Russia, where the case was fabricated against her.
On March 2nd, the prosecutor’s office requested that she be sentenced to 23 years in a penal colony and given a fine of 100,000 rubles ($1,400).
Savchenko declared a dry hunger strike on March 3rd after the Donetsk City Court in the Rostov region announced that she would not be given a chance to make her final closing statement during a court hearing.