Sentsov transferred to another Siberian jail:
By RFE/RL's Russian Service
IRKUTSK, Russia -- Ukrainian writer and filmmaker Oleh Sentsov, who is jailed in Russia over his opposition to Russia's 2014 annexation of Crimea, has been transferred from a penal colony in Yakutsk to a notorious detention center in the city of Irkutsk, some 1,900 kilometers away.
Lawyers and members of the Public Monitoring Commission in Angara, who visited Sentsov in Detention Center #1 in Irkutsk, said on September 11 that he was in solitary confinement in the jail's basement.
Lawyer Svyatoslav Khromenkov told RFE/RL that the Irkutsk detention center was considered one of the worst jails in Siberia, but he added that Sentsov's cell was recently repaired and was "more or less OK."
Khromenkov said Sentsov did not know why he was moved so far.
Khromenkov suggested Sentsov may have been transferred to prevent him from staying at one detention facility long enough to establish himself there.
Inmates in the former Soviet Union are typically moved from detention facility to another in so-called Stolypin train carriages that are specially equipped for the transportation of convicts.
Transfers from one jail to another, especially long-distance transfers, typically have been used to put pressure on some inmates.
Convicts are forced to spend days in narrow cages inside the train cars, which very often are jammed with people. There often is no fresh air nor the possibility to use a toilet on the train.
Long distances are covered in many days because Stolypin trains are only allowed to move during certain hours, usually at night.
That means prisoners are kept either inside the railroad cars at stations or in transit jails, making such trips long and exhausting.
Sentsov, a native of Crimea who opposed Russia's seizure and annexation of the Ukrainian peninsula, is currently serving a 20-year prison term on terrorism charges.
He and international human rights groups say the charges are politically motivated.
Sentsov was arrested in May 2014 on suspicion of planning the fire bombings of pro-Russian organizations in Crimea. A Russian court convicted him on multiple terrorism charges in August 2014.
Sentsov has denied all charges against him, saying that a "trial by occupiers cannot be fair by definition."
More video of Misha's Charge:
Criminal probe launched after Saakashvili crosses border:
By RFE/RL
Police in Ukraine say they have launched a criminal investigation after Mikheil Saakashvili defied the authorities and returned to the country that stripped him of citizenship.
Backed by hundreds of supporters, Saakashvili, the ex-president of Georgia and former governor of Ukraine's Odesa region, made his way from Poland into Ukraine on September 10, breaking through a corridor of Ukrainian border guards.
The incident came after a day of drama and repeatedly changing travel plans by Saakashvili.
Prosecutor-General Yuriy Lutsenko said late on September 10 that charges would be pursued against the organizers of Saakashvili's unauthorized entry.
A statement by police in the western Ukrainian city of Lviv, where Saakashvili spent the night, said on September 11 that regional police were investigating "events near the [Medyka]-Shehyni checkpoint along the Ukrainian-Polish border."
The statement did not name Saakashvili, but said those found guilty of illegally crossing the border could face up to five years in prison.
Writing on his Facebook page on September 11, Ukrainian Prime Minister Volodymyr Hroysman called the incident an "attack" on Ukraine's statehood.
Saakashvili claims to have UN recognition as being "stateless" and says he wants to challenge the revocation of his citizenship at a court in Ukraine.
Besides running the risk of being arrested for illegally crossing into Ukraine, Saakashvili also faces possible extradition to Georgia where he is wanted on charges of misappropriating property and abusing his office during his nine years as Georgia's president. Saakashvili says those charges are politically motivated.
Saakashvili lost his Georgian citizenship in 2015 when he was granted Ukrainian citizenship in order to take up Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko's offer to become governor of the Black Sea region of Odesa. Tbilisi does not allow dual citizenship.
Saakashvili resigned from the Odesa governor's post in November 2016, complaining he had been blocked from carrying out reforms.
In July, Poroshenko stripped Saakashvili of his Ukrainian citizenship amid a falling out of the two former allies. (w/Interfax, TASS)