Protesters across Ukraine continue to demand Savchenko's release, our Ukrainian Service reports:
Protesters across Ukraine have continued to demand the release of Ukrainian pilot Nadia Savchenko from Russian custody.
Police in the Black Sea port city of Odesa used tear gas to disperse hundreds of demonstrators on March 9 after they pelted the Russian Consulate with eggs and painted the building's door red.
Protesters in Odesa also burned an effigy of Russian President Vladimir Putin in front of the consulate.
In the western city of Lviv, about 200 protesters threw eggs, stones, and small bottles of iodine at the Russian Consulate -- leaving difficult-to-remove brown stains on the building.
Demonstrators also threw paper planes with the inscription "Free Savchenko."
A smoke bomb was also thrown onto the Russian Consulate grounds in Lviv.
Protests calling for Savchenko's release were also held in Kyiv, Ivano-Frankivsk, Cherkasy, and other Ukrainian cities.
A Russian court in the far northern Komi Republic has accepted that Gennady Afanasyev must not be held in a prison 2, 700 kilometres from his family. This unexpectedly positive move comes as fellow Crimean political prisoner Oleg Sentsov is being taken to the far eastern Yakutia region of Russia, and Oleksandr Kolchenko has reached a notorious prison in the Chelyabinsk region. All three men, together with Oleksy Chirniy, opposed Russia’s invasion and annexation of Crimea. They were all arrested in May 2014 and received long sentences on trumped-up charges in a case condemned by Russian human rights activists and the international community as politically motivated.
Gennady Afanasyev’s application dates back to January 2016. At a court hearing on Jan 12, the Syktykvar City Court ordered the Russian penitentiary service to explain why Afanasyev had been moved 2700 kilometres from Crimea, where his mother lives.
This is in breach of Russia law and of Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights, regarding the right to family life. During the hearing, the penitentiary service official was rather lost for an explanation, and couldn’t come up with anything better than that there had been a place free in the Komi Republic. Read On
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):
