Another item from RFE/RL's news desk:
Lawyer: Ukrainian Jailed in Russia Moved To Punishment Cell; Health Worsening
A Ukrainian who testified in the Russian trial of filmmaker Oleh Sentsov and later recanted his testimony has been transferred to a harsh punishment cell and is being denied medical care despite worsening health.
Hennadiy Afanasiev's lawyer told RFE/RL that Afanasiev, who is serving a 7-year prison sentence after being convicted on charges widely seen as fabricated, had requested a transfer to another facility so he could get treatment for a blood infection, but that has been rejected.
Earlier this month, they moved him to a punishment cell, his lawyer, Aleksandr Popkov, said, after allegedly finding contraband items including a cell phone SIM-card and, earlier, a razor blade. Afanasiev denied the items were his.
"They’re seriously squeezing him," Popkov said. "They’re using the full power of the repressive machine against him. This, most likely, worries him most. One thing after another is piling up: problems with his health, problems with the [prison] director, who is reprimanding him without cause."
Afanasiev was arrested in Crimea in May 2014, along with Sentsov and two other men, and was accused of being part of a terrorist conspiracy on the Black Sea peninsula, which had been annexed by Russia two months earlier.
Afanasiev initially provided testimony that helped convict Sentsov and his co-defendant Oleksandr Kolchenko. But he later retracted his statement, saying he had been tortured by Russian security agents. He was sentenced in December 2014 by a Moscow court, and sent to a prison colony in the northern Russian region of Komi.
Senstov, who received international acclaim for his 2011 film Gamer, stopped his filmmaking in late 2013 as protests in Kyiv against Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych began to build. Those protests later culminated in violent clashes that sent Yanukovych fleeing the country in February 2014.
Sentsov later helped bring food and water to Ukrainian soldiers who had been barricaded in their bases in Crimea after Russia's stealthy takeover of the peninsula.
He was accused of organizing the firebombing of pro-Russia organizations on the peninsula and was sentenced to 20 years in prison
Popkov said Afanasiev had also been barred from receiving telephone calls, and relatives reported he hadn't been receiving mail since December.
With reporting by Igor Bubnov from RFE/RL's Russian Service
It doesn't look like relations between Moscow and Kyiv are going to thaw anytime soon, at least if this report from our news desk is anything to go by:
Russia Files Lawsuit Against Ukraine Over Unpaid Eurobonds
Russia has filed a lawsuit against Ukraine after Kyiv failed to repay a $3 billion Eurobond.
Russian Finance Minister Anton Siluanov said the lawsuit was filed on February 17 at the High Court in London.
"This lawsuit was filed after repeated unsuccessful attempts to engage Ukraine in constructive dialogue about restructuring the debt and to admit the fact that Russia-owned Eurobonds are an official loan," Siluanov said in comments quoted by Russian media.
The Eurobond was issued by the government of former President Viktor Yanukovych in late 2013 and bought by Russia in its entirety.
The bond was issued just two months before Yanukovych fled Ukraine amid street protests triggered by his seeking to halt Ukraine's swing toward European integration in favor of closer economic ties with Russia.
Ukraine, which has separately reached an agreement with private creditors to restructure its sovereign and sovereign-guaranteed debt, insists the Eurobond is a commercial debt and that it cannot offer Russia a better deal than other creditors.