Prominent Crimean lawyer jailed for five days over 2013 Facebook post:
By the Crimean Desk of RFE/RL's Ukrainian Service
SIMFEROPOL -- A Russia-controlled court in Crimea has sentenced prominent lawyer Emil Kurbedinov to five days in jail for a 2013 Facebook post made before Russian forces seized and subsequently annexed the peninsula from Ukraine.
The court in Simferopol on December 7 found Kurbedinov guilty of the propagation and public demonstration of symbols of an extremist organization. The exact contents of the post were not immediately revealed.
Kurbedinov, who was detained on December 6, has called the accusation "absurd" and said that his arrest was politically motivated.
Kurbedinov said he believes his arrest and trial were linked to his representation of one of the 24 Ukrainian sailors detained by Russian forces on November 25 when three Ukrainian Navy ships were seized in the Sea of Azov.
His lawyer, Aleksei Ladin, said at the trial that his client did not break any laws as the Facebook post in question was made prior to Russia's annexation of Crimea in March 2014 and therefore Russian law did not apply to the case.
Other clients of Kurbedinov in recent years have included defendants in Crimea charged in high-profile cases that human rights organizations and Western governments say are politically motivated.
Since Russia seized and illegally annexed the Ukrainian peninsula in 2014, Moscow has conducted a persistent campaign of oppression that targets Crimeans who oppose the annexation.
Kyiv says Russia blocking Kerch Strait, plans to send navy ships:
Ukraine is accusing Russia of keeping up its blockade of the Kerch Strait that links the Black Sea with the Sea of Azov, warning that it will soon send more navy ships through the strait.
The warning by Ukraine's Defense Ministry sets up another possible military confrontation in the area, where Russian seized three Ukrainian Navy ships and 24 crewmen on November 25.
The Ukrainian Border Guard Service said on December 7 that more than 140 Ukrainian civilian ships were stuck on both sides of the Kerch Strait as a result of excessive checks and delays by Russia.
It accused Russia of creating a bottleneck for Ukrainian ships sailing between the Sea of Azov and the Black Sea.
The complaints come three days after Ukrainian Infrastructure Minister Volodymyr Omelyan announced that Russia had "partially" unblocked Ukraine's Sea of Azov ports, allowing Ukrainian ship to pass through the Kerch Strait for the first time since November 25.
"Vessels make their way to the entrance and exit through the Kerch Strait toward Ukrainian ports," Omelyan said on December 4, adding that all Ukrainian ships "are stopped and inspected by Russia as before, but the traffic has been partially restored."
The Ukrainian sailors remain in Russian captivity despite international calls for their release.
The November 25 incident off Crimea's Black Sea coast near the Kerch Strait was the latest escalation in the conflict between Russia and Ukraine that began in 2014 when Russian forces seized and illegally annexed Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula. (Reuters, AP, and AFP)