Venue change considered for Savchenko 

MOSCOW – The trial of a Ukrainian air force pilot charged by Russian authorities in connection with the deaths of two Russian journalists in eastern Ukraine was adjourned shortly after it began behind closed doors in Russia’s Rostov region on July 30. A court spokeswoman said the court would consider an appeal by Nadiya Savchenko’s lawyers to conduct the trial in Moscow. She said a date for the next hearing won’t be set until a decision is reached on whether to hold the trial in Moscow. Ms. Savchenko’s high-profile trial is being held in Donetsk, a small town in Russia’s southern Rostov region close to the border with war-torn eastern Ukraine. The town has no connection with its namesake in eastern Ukraine. Western diplomats who attempted to monitor the closed-door trial were not allowed to attend. Russia’s Granu.ru publication tweeted a photo of reporters standing outside of the courtroom, saying that journalists were being allowed inside the court building because of the heat outside, but were not being allowed into the trial itself. Ms. Savchenko, 34, faces up to 25 years in prison on the charges, which have been internationally condemned as politically motivated. She was moved out of her pretrial detention center in Moscow earlier this month and transferred to a facility in the town of Shakhty, in the Rostov region. Russian authorities say the trial will unfold in the Rostov region because this is where she is charged with illegally crossing into Russia from Ukraine, a charge she denies. Her lawyers have accused Moscow of picking the remote location to deter observers from flocking to the court for the hearings, which will take place behind closed doors. “I assume this was done to make access to the trial as difficult as possible for the press and for international diplomats,” Ilya Novikov, one of her lawyers, told RFE/RL. “It’s far from Moscow, it’s a border region where the FSB can expel any foreigner, and it’s close to a conflict zone.” On July 23, the U.S. delegation to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe said the change of venue would “dramatically decrease the amount of international observation of the trial, which appears to be the goal of Russian authorities.” (RFE/RL, based on reporting by RFE/RL Russian Service correspondent Lyubov Chizhova)