Activists in St. Petersburg, Moscow demand Savchenko's release, our Russian Service reports:
ST. PETERSBURG -- Russian activists in the city of St. Petersburg staged an protest on March 9 to call for the release of jailed Ukrainian pilot Nadia Savchenko.
About 10 activists raised large letters fixed to wooden planks, to spell out "Save Nadezhda!" on the Neva River embankment in the city center.
Nadezhda is the Russian variant of Savchenko's first name, which means "hope."
The activists told RFE/RL that the sentence had two meanings -- a call to for the release of Savchenko and to preserve hope in Russia about the future.
After 30 minutes, police arrived at the site and made the activists remove the letters. There were no arrests.
In Moscow, two Russian protesters were detained on March 9 after displaying signs in support in Savchenko.
The protests came a day after police in Moscow detained 35 demonstrators, mainly women, for expressing support to Savchenko in the center of the Russian capital.
The majority of those demonstrators were released later on March 8.
Savchenko is awaiting the reading of a verdict on March 21 in a Russian court where she has been put on trial in connection with the deaths in 2014 of two Russian journalists in eastern Ukraine.
Kyiv and Western governments say she was kidnapped and illegally transported into Russia where she is facing a political show trial.
Here is today's map of the security situation in eastern Ukraine, according to the National Security and Defense Council (click to enlarge):
An excerpt:
In January Ukraine’s president, Petro Poroshenko, congratulated the country on surviving its first winter without buying Russian gas. It had instead bought European gas which, as Poroshenko pointed out proudly, was 30% more expensive.
This sums up the core problem facing the Ukrainian economy. It is not corruption, a serious issue about which little can be done in the short term, but the ideologically driven choice to sever all ties with Russia, the country that has historically been its major trading partner and chief investor.
In little over a year, living standards in Ukraine have fallen by half, the currency has lost 350% of its value, and inflation has skyrocketed to 43%. Yet, even as the economy has collapsed, the government has insisted on economic policies that can only be termed suicidal.
By tearing up contracts with Russia in 2014, Ukraine’s defence and aviation industries lost 80% of their income. Once the pride of Kiev, airline manufacturer Antonov went bankprupt and rocket engine producer Yuzhmash is now working just one day a week.
By severing banking ties with Moscow, Kiev has denied itself investment and a vital economic lifeline – the remittances sent back home by zarobitchane, Ukraine’s migrant workers. Up to seven millionUkrainians work in Russia, sending back $9bn in 2014 – three times the total foreign direct investment Ukraine got last year.
