Russia under fire at U.N. over MH17
Russia has rejected calls at the United Nations to accept responsibility for the downing of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 (MH17) over Ukraine after an investigation found that a Russian army missile caused the explosion that killed all 298 people on board. At a U.N. Security Council meeting on Ukraine late on May 29, Dutch Foreign Minister Stef Blok called on Moscow to accept the findings of a Dutch-led investigative team that the airliner was shot down by a Russian-made Buk missile provided by Russia’s 53rd Anti-Aircraft Missile Brigade based in the city of Kursk. “The language of ultimatums is not something that anyone will be allowed to use when speaking to Russia,” Russia’s U.N. Ambassador Vasily Nebenzya responded. “We cannot accept the unfounded conclusion of the JIT,” he said, referring to the Dutch-led Joint investigation Team. Separately, Russian Foreign Affairs Minister Sergei Lavrov on a visit to Minsk on May 29 also rejected what he called “ultimatums” from the Netherlands and Australia over compensation for relatives of people killed in the incident. Russia has claimed that the investigation led by the Dutch government, working in cooperation with the Australian, Ukrainian and Malaysian governments, was not legitimate because Russia was not included as an equal partner in the investigation. U.S. Ambassador Nikki Haley voiced strong support for the Dutch and Australian demands that Russia acknowledge its role in the tragedy and help bring to justice those responsible for the shooting down of the plane. She said Moscow’s denials are linked to its refusal to acknowledge Russia’s involvement in the Ukrainian conflict by providing weapons such as Buk missiles to Ukrainian separatists. “Despite its transparent denials, there is no doubt Russia is driving the Ukrainian conflict,” said Ms. Haley. Ukrainian Foreign Affairs Minister Pavlo Klimkin told the council that Russia’s rejection of the findings “did not surprise me at all.” He added, “We have no doubt that the downing of MH17 flight is a terrorist act.” (RFE/RL with reporting by AFP, Reuters and TASS)
Poroshenko on Russia’s legal responsibility
Ukraine’s President Petro Poroshenko said “The decision of the Netherlands and Australia to initiate the prosecution of the Russian Federation at the interstate level for downing the Malaysian Airlines MH17 on July 17, 2014, is an extremely important step towards ensuring Russia’s international legal responsibility for the systematic violations of its international obligations.” He added, “This step naturally complements Ukraine’s actions in the International Court of Justice in a lawsuit on the basis of the International Convention for the Suppression of the Financing of Terrorism. I have instructed the Foreign Affairs Ministry of Ukraine to promptly submit proposals on the possibility of joining the process initiated by the Netherlands and Australia.” (Presidential Administration of Ukraine)
Sentsov agrees to medical treatment
Ukrainian filmmaker Oleh Sentsov, who opposed Moscow’s 2014 annexation of Crimea and is now on hunger strike in a Russian prison, has agreed to receive medical treatment, Russia’s prison authorities say. The Federal Penitentiary Service’s branch in the far-northern Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Region said in a statement on May 28 that Mr. Sentsov was under the supervision of medical workers in the correctional facility where he is serving his sentence. “At the moment, his state of health is satisfactory,” it said. Mr. Sentsov, who is serving a 20-year prison term after being convicted on terrorism charges that he and human rights groups say were politically motivated, began a hunger strike on May 14, demanding the release of 64 Ukrainian citizens that he considers to be political prisoners in Russia. Lawyer Dmitry Dinze said Mr. Sentsov had told him he had timed his hunger strike to correspond with Russia’s hosting of the 2018 soccer World Cup championship from June 14 to July 15. The Save Oleg Sentsov activist group last week announced a global campaign ahead of the World Cup to demand the release of the Ukrainian filmmaker. (RFE/RL’s Russian Service, RFE/RL’s Ukrainian Service)
Ex-presidents see threat in tensions
Five ex-presidents from Poland and Ukraine have issued a joint appeal for reconciliation between their countries amid growing nationalism and provocations from Russia that have strained their relations. The ex-presidents expressed concerned about the strains, saying that unity was now needed given “the challenge of Russian aggression to Ukraine.” The appeal was presented at a May 28 news conference in Warsaw by the two former Polish presidents, Aleksander Kwasniewski and Bronislaw Komorowski. It also was signed by former Ukrainian Presidents Leonid Kravchuk, Leonid Kuchma and Viktor Yushchenko. Poland for years was one of the strongest advocates in the European Union and NATO for bringing Ukraine into the Western fold. That position infuriated Moscow. But Polish-Ukrainian ties have been strained recently over disagreements rooted in historical grievances. (RFE/RL, based on reporting by AP and Reuters)
Poland seeks permanent U.S. presence
Polish Defense Minister Mariusz Blaszczak said on May 28 that he has had talks with U.S. officials about permanently stationing U.S. troops in Poland as a deterrent against Russian aggression. Mr. Blaszczak said he had the talks recently in Washington that were prompted by security concerns following Russia’s illegal annexation of Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula and its support for pro-Russia separatist fighters in eastern Ukraine. “The result of our efforts is that the U.S. Senate has contacted the Pentagon about an assessment of…[the] permanent presence of U.S. troops in Poland,” Mr. Blaszczak said on state Radio 1. “Such presence is of great importance because it deters the adversary.” A report by the Onet.pl news portal says Warsaw is offering up to $2 billion to help build the infrastructure for a permanent U.S. base in Poland. Poland currently hosts a contingent of U.S. troops on a rotational, temporary, but open-ended mission. In Moscow, Russian President Vladimir Putin’s spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, said that an increase in NATO’s military presence near Russia’s borders “certainly does not contribute to security and stability on the continent in any way.” He added, “These expansionist steps, certainly, result in counteractions of the Russian side to balance the parity which is violated every time this way,” according to Russia’s state-run TASS news agency on May 28. (RFE/RL, based on reporting by AP, BBC, Onet.pl, and TASS)
Nord Stream 2 called hybrid ‘weapon’
Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki says Russia’s planned natural-gas pipeline, Nord Stream 2, is a weapon of hybrid warfare that Moscow wants to use to undermine European energy security and the solidarity of the European Union and NATO. Mr. Morawiecki said at a NATO Parliamentary Assembly meeting in Warsaw on May 28 that Nord Stream 2 is “a poison pill for European security, which can have far-reaching consequences.” Nord Stream 2 is a controversial project that would expand the current Nord Stream pipeline, which passes along the bottom of the Baltic Sea to deliver Russian gas to Germany. The United States, Poland, the Baltic states and several other European Union countries have expressed concern about Nord Stream 2 – which avoids existing gas pipelines through Ukraine – and the added leverage on energy security it could give Moscow. Russian President Vladimir Putin has said Washington’s opposition to Nord Stream 2 stems from President Donald Trump’s desire to encourage exports of U.S. liquefied natural gas. Earlier at the assembly, Polish President Andrzej Duda also issued a warning about Russian intentions in Europe. “With regret, it must be said that Moscow has never come to terms with the collapse of the imperial Soviet Union. The invasion of Georgia and the unlawful annexation of Crimea and military intervention in Ukraine illustrate the real intentions of Russia,” Mr. Duda said. (RFE/RL, based on reporting by AP, CTK, and EuroZpravy.cz)
FSB accuses Tatars of “extremist” plot
Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) has accused Crimean Tatar activists of orchestrating and carrying out attacks with Kyiv’s support, allegations described as “fantasy” by the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU). The FSB said in a May 21 statement that an alleged group of plotters was led by Erol Veliyev, a parliamentary assistant to Ukrainian lawmaker Mustafa Dzhemilev, a veteran Crimean Tatar leader. Rights groups and Western governments have denounced what they call a campaign of repression targeting members of the Turkic-speaking Crimean Tatar minority and others who opposed Moscow’s seizure of the Black Sea peninsula in March 2014. The majority of Crimean Tatars opposed the Russian takeover of their historic homeland. The FSB accused Crimean Tatar activists of establishing, participating in, and recruiting for an extremist group – charges that can be punished by up to 10 years in prison. It said the group led by Mr. Veliyev acted on orders from Refat Chubarov – chairman of the Mejlis, the Crimean Tatars’ self-governing body that Russia has outlawed – “with support” from the SBU. In Kyiv, a spokeswoman for the SBU told RFE/RL that she would not comment on the FSB’s “latest fantasy.” The FSB statement said that in January the group set the home of Crimea’s Moscow-backed chief mufti, Emirali Ablayev, on fire. In April, Russia said it had detained one of the alleged members, Oleksandr Steshenko, as he entered Crimea to prepare “provocations.” Ukraine’s Foreign Affairs Ministry at the time asked Moscow for explanations and demanded that his whereabouts be revealed. (Crimea Desk, RFE/RL’s Ukrainian Service, with reporting by AFP)
Ukraine’s envoys to CIS bodies recalled
Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko has signed a decree recalling Kyiv’s envoys from bodies of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), a loose grouping of former Soviet republics that he said Ukraine no longer has any use for. Mr. Poroshenko announced the decree in a speech in the western city of Vinnytsia on May 19, his press service said. “We have nothing more to do there,” Mr. Poroshenko said, according to a statement from his office. “We are moving together to Europe.” Kyiv has been an associate member of the CIS since it was formed following the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. Full members include Russia and eight former Soviet republics – Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan. Mr. Poroshenko announced plans to quit the CIS last month, criticizing the organization’s “failure to denounce Russia’s aggression [in Ukraine].” (RFE/RL’s Ukrainian Service)
Poroshenko enacts new sanctions
Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko has signed a decree to enact a recently adopted decision to expand sanctions on Russian companies and entities. The presidential decree signed on May 14 appeared on the presidential website late in the evening on May 17. The document did not carry the names of persons or companies included in the latest sanctions list. Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council on May 2 approved the sanctions, which mirror those of the United States that blacklisted tycoons and allies of Russian President Vladimir Putin. Kyiv has also extended existing sanctions it introduced against hundreds of Russian companies and entities in response to the annexation of Crimea in 2014 and Kremlin support for a pro-Russia separatist movement in the country’s east. The council has said the new sanctions would be in force for at least three years and include penalties on Russian lawmakers and top officials. (RFE/RL, with reporting by Reuters)
Loznitsa wins prize at Cannes festival
Ukrainian film director Serhiy Loznitsa has won a best director prize in the Cannes film festival’s Un Certain Regard competition for “Donbass,” his odyssey about the conflict in eastern Ukraine. The Un Certain Regard awards, which were announced on May 18, go to more edgy films and up-and-coming directors than those awarded in the Palme d’Or prizes in Cannes’ main film competition. The Un Certain Regard prizes were awarded a day ahead of the main awards ceremony, which is due to take place on May 19. Mr. Loznitsa’s hard-hitting film depicts the brutal conflict since 2014 between government forces and Russia-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine in a “post-truth” world dominated by fake news. The film portrays the region as declining into a gangland-style war at a time when Russia is seeking to reassert itself in the world some 18 years after the Soviet Union collapsed. Mr. Loznitsa, whose previous film “A Gentle Creature” competed in the Cannes festival last year, told the AFP news agency in an interview last week that he felt compelled to make the film because of “the world crumbling around him.” He noted: “My main concern and my main subject is the particular type of human being, which is produced by a society, where aggression, decay, and disintegration rule.” He also told AFP that “The information war waged by [President Vladimir] Putin’s Russia uses all of the most efficient and modern technical means available to influence attitudes around the world, to hammer home one truth as the truth.”. Mr. Loznitsa is viewed as a national treasure in Ukraine after making some two dozen documentaries and films that have brought him international renown. His documentary “Maidan” about Kyiv’s pro-Western street revolution premiered at a special Cannes screening in 2014. (RFE/RL, based on reporting by AFP and DPA)
Journalist faces 14-year term
Russian prosecutors are seeking a 14-year prison term for Ukrainian journalist Roman Sushchenko, who is on trial in Moscow on espionage charges in a case viewed by Kyiv and rights activists as politically motivated. “The prosecution asked 14 years [in prison] for Roman Sushchenko,” his lawyer, Mark Feigin wrote on Twitter on May 28, saying in a separate tweet that the Moscow City Court will announce its verdict in the case on June 4. Russia’s TASS news agency quoted a source at Mr. Sushchenko’s closed-door trial at the Moscow City Court as saying that the prosecutor asked for 14 years of imprisonment for the reporter in a maximum-security correctional facility. Ukraine reiterated its call for Mr. Sushchenko to be freed, with Foreign Affairs Ministry spokeswoman Maryana Betsa calling him a “hostage to Russia’s aggression.” The maximum sentence prosecutors could seek for the Ukrainian journalist was 20 years. Russian judges do not have to follow prosecutors’ guidance on sentencing but rarely impose higher sentences than requested by the prosecution. Mr. Sushchenko, a Paris-based correspondent for the Ukrinform news agency, was detained in Moscow in 2016 on suspicion of collecting classified information. He pleaded not guilty at the start of his trial in March. Mr. Feigin told the 112 Ukraine TV channel he did not rule out the possibility of Moscow wanting to exchange Mr. Sushchenko for the head of RIA Novosti’s branch in Ukraine, Kirill Vyshinsky, who is accused by Ukrainian authorities of high treason. That case has drawn harsh criticism from Moscow and expressions of concern from media watchdogs. (RFE/RL’s Russian Service, RFE/RL’s Ukrainian Service, with reporting by TASS and AFP)
Saakashvili for sanctions on Poroshenko
Exiled politician Mikheil Saakashvili is calling on European nations to impose sanctions on Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko and his inner circle for allegedly violating his human rights. Mr. Saakashvili on May 29 charged that Mr. Poroshenko, a former political ally who made him governor of Odesa before they parted ways over allegations of corruption in the government, breached international law by stripping him of his Ukrainian citizenship and kicking him out of the country in February. Speaking in the Netherlands, where he has been residing along with his Dutch wife and two sons, Mr. Saakashvili said sanctions should be used not only to push Mr. Poroshenko to restore his Ukrainian citizenship, but to target assets that he alleged Ukraine’s leaders have obtained illegally. “We are looking for their assets across Europe to impound them, because they were stolen from the Ukrainian people,” Mr. Saakashvili said. His British lawyer Geoffrey Robertson said he cannot take the Saakashvili case to European courts until he has exhausted his options in Ukraine’s slow-moving judicial system. “I don’t have personal ambitions,” Mr. Saakashvili said. “But I have ambition to help Ukrainian democracy, to help Ukraine in the corruption fight.” (RFE/RL, based on reporting by AP and AFP)
Naftogaz trying to recover funds owed
Naftogaz of Ukraine has begun the process of trying to recover the billions of dollars it is owed by Russia’s giant state-controlled gas monopoly, Gazprom, due to an arbitration-court verdict. Naftogaz said on May 30 that it was seeking to legally acquire Gazprom shares of stock and other assets in European countries to gain some of the $2.6 billion from Gazprom that Naftogaz was awarded in March by the Arbitration Institute of the Stockholm Chamber of Commerce. Naftogaz said it was working in Switzerland, the Netherlands and Britain to gain Gazprom assets in those countries. Gazprom – which has thus far refused to pay the award – has pledged to challenge the attempts to acquire its assets in court by making counterclaims against Naftogaz. Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko said on Facebook that he ordered Naftogaz to expand its efforts to other European countries in an effort to recoup the award from Gazprom. “The process of the enforcement of recovery of $2.6 billion from Gazprom has been moved to practice,” he said, adding that he had held a meeting with Naftogaz CEO Andriy Kobolev. “My clear order is that we must not stop on these three countries and do our best to ensure the arrival of awarded funds to Ukraine.” Mr. Poroshenko said the assets Naftogaz would seek to acquire would include shares in the Nord Stream and Nord Stream 2 natural-gas pipelines. The Swedish arbitration court’s decision awarded Naftogaz $2.56 billion, but nearly $50 million more has been added to the award in interest because of Gazprom’s failure to pay the award. Gazprom and Naftogaz filed multibillion-dollar cases against each in the Swedish court in 2014. Naftogaz has argued it was owed compensation from Gazprom due to the Russian firm’s failure to send certain quantities of gas annually, as contractually agreed, and of paying Naftogaz too little for the gas that transited through the Ukrainian company’s pipelines. (RFE/RL, with reporting by Interfax-Ukraine and TASS)
Dzhemilev: 1M Russians brought into Crimea
Russia has relocated up to 1 million people to the annexed Ukrainian region of Crimea, according to Mustafa Dzhemilev, the longtime leader of the Crimean Tatars and Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko’s envoy for Crimean Tatar affairs. Mr. Dzhemilev told Ukrinform on May 27 that Moscow was bringing “large numbers” of people from various regions of Russia to Crimea, which Russia annexed in 2014. “But this is held as a military secret because they know perfectly well that it is a crime,” Mr. Dzhemilev said. He estimated that the total number of Russians brought into the disputed region was between 850,000 and 1 million. Mr. Dzhemilev, a dissident during Soviet times and longtime activist for Crimean Tatar causes, did not say what sources he had used to make his estimate. Crimea had a population of some 2.24 million people in 2014, the year that Russia illegally occupied the Ukrainian peninsula. “Russia is now roughly repeating the same strategy that was used during the first occupation [of Crimea] under [Empress] Catherine [the Great],” he said. “At that time it wasn’t possible to deport people since there were no railroads. So they simply created impossible living conditions for people in order to force them to migrate. As a result, Crimean Tatars very quickly became a minority people.” Russia has announced steps increasing the number of military personnel in Crimea, but exact numbers on the amount of personnel moved to Crimea have not been made public by Moscow. (Crimean Desk, RFE/RL’s Ukrainian Service)