There's definitely some interesting legal gymnastics going on here:
Here are some details in English in case you don't read Russian (an RFE/RL report from earlier this year):
A court in Crimea has jailed a local resident, Oleksandr Kostenko, on charges of attacking a Ukrainian security officer in Kyiv during the February 2014 protests in Kyiv against pro-Russian President Viktor Yanukovych.
Crimea's Russia-backed prosecutor said Kostenko was charged with "intentional infliction of health damage" on February 8 and placed in pretrial detention for two months.
Crimean Tatar activist Iskender Kantemirov also was placed in two-month pretrial detention on February 8 on charges of taking part in “mass disorder” near the Crimean parliament in Simferopol, in February 2014.
On January 29, a deputy chairman of the Crimean Tatar Mejlis, Ahtem Ciygoz (say: chee-GOZ) was placed in two-month pretrial detention on charges of organizing clashes outside Crimea’s parliament in February 2014.
Crimean Tatars and other pro-Ukrainian activists clashed with a pro-Russian crowd near Crimea’s parliament on February 26 – a day before armed men in unmarked uniforms seized the parliament building.
The gunmen remained in the legislature, and Russian troops were deployed across the peninsula, when lawmakers several days later voted to join Russia.
(With reporting by TASS and Interfax)
It seems some more NATO jets have been scrambled, this time off the coast of Britain:
Britain says two Royal Air Force Typhoon fighter jets have been scrambled after Russian long-range bombers were seen flying towards British airspace.
Britain's Ministry of Defense said on May 14 that the two Russian planes were spotted north of Scotland.
The statement said the planes, identified as Russian Bear strategic bombers, were escorted "until they were out of the U.K. area of interest."
"At no time did the Russian military aircraft cross into UK sovereign airspace," it added.
Intercepts of Russian aircraft by NATO member states have increased over the last year amid heightened tensions between the West and Moscow over Russia's involvement in the conflict in Ukraine and its annexation of Crimea.
Russian officials have denied any wrongdoing, saying their aircraft have been complying with international rules.
(AP, Reuters)
Internet payment broker PayPal seems to have entered the fray over the Ukraine conflict, according to RFE/RL's Carl Schreck:
The U.S.-based online payment service PayPal has blocked an account set up by Russian opposition activists to raise funds for a report alleging Russian military involvement in the Ukraine war, citing the political nature of the donation campaign.
Vsevolod Chagayev told RFE/RL that PayPal informed him on May 14 that it decided to block the account because of the political nature of the report, started by Kremlin critic Boris Nemtsov before his slaying, which asserts that more than 200 Russian military personnel have been killed in fighting in eastern Ukraine.
"I talked with employees of the Russian office, they said that this is the official position of the company," Chagayev said in e-mailed comments.
The Nemtsov report focuses on Russia's involvement in the armed conflict between Ukrainian forces and Moscow-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine. It has been posted online its entirety and published in an initial print run of 2,000 copies.
The PayPal account was set up by the activists promoting the report to collect online donations to pay for an eventual mass printing and free distribution.
Chagayev says he opened the account on May 12, the same day that the report -- titled Putin. War -- was presented at the Moscow headquarters of RPR-Parnas, the opposition political party that Nemtsov co-founded.
Chagayev said the account attracted around 100,000 rubles ($2,000) in donations before PayPal informed him in the early afternoon on May 14 that it would be blocked.
"PayPal proposed to withdraw [the funds] as soon as possible," he told RFE/RL.
Read the entire article here
One cartoonist's take on the current situation: