Dzhemilev urges Savchenko to stop 

KYIV – Veteran Crimean Tatar leader Mustafa Dzhemilev has called on Ukrainian pilot Nadiya Savchenko to end her hunger strike in a Russian jail. Addressing Lt. Savchenko in an interview with the Gordon news site on February 24, Mr. Dzhemilev predicted her hunger strike would not prompt Russian authorities to release her. “Nadiya, daughter, there is no sense in continuing the hunger strike. Russia is not a country where humane principles exist,” he said. Mr. Dzhemilev, 71, is a former Soviet dissident who served six sentences in prison camps from 1966 to 1986. He was force-fed during a 303-day hunger strike, the longest in the history of the Soviet human rights movement. Mr. Dzhemilev, now a Ukrainian lawmaker, said Nobel Peace Prize-winning rights defender Andrei Sakharov had persuaded him to end his hunger strike. (RFE/RL Ukrainian Service)