Russian who served time for reposting Crimea article leaves Russia:
By RFE/RL
A Russian man who was recently released from prison after serving time for reposting an article advocating the return of Crimea to Ukraine has reportedly left Russia with family.
Moscow-based activist Anna Borko wrote on Facebook on August 30 that Andrei Bubeyev and his wife left Russia.
Media reports cited another activist, Yekaterina Bashilova, as saying on August 31 that Bubeyev and his wife are currently in Kyiv.
Bubeyev, who is from the northwestern Russian city of Tver, was released from prison on August 23 after serving his full term of two years and three months.
Bubeyev was arrested in 2015 after he reposted several articles criticizing the Russian government.
In August 2015, he was found guilty of inciting hatred via the Internet and illegal possession of ammunition and sentenced to one year in a colony settlement, a penitentiary in which convicts live close to an industrial facility or a farm where they work.
However, days after that sentence was pronounced, Bubeyev was charged with promoting extremism and threatening Russia's territorial integrity.
This time the charges were about Bubeyev's reposting an article by jailed Kremlin critic Boris Stomakhin that had earlier been deemed "extremist" and "threatening to Russia's territorial integrity."
Stomakhin's article argued that the Ukrainian Black Sea region of Crimea had been illegally annexed by Russia and should be returned to Ukraine.
In May 2016, Bubeyev was convicted of the new charges and sentenced to two years and three months in prison.
In March 2016, the Moscow-based human rights group Memorial declared Bubeyev a political prisoner and called for his immediate release.
As trial resumes in Crimea, Semena hopes for acquittal:
By the Crimean Desk of RFE/RL's Ukrainian Service
A court in Russian-occupied Crimea is to hold a new hearing on August 31 in the trial of Mykola Semena, an RFE/RL contributor who is fighting what he says is a politically motivated separatism charge.
Semena told RFE/RL on August 31 that the trial is entering the final stage in which the prosecution and defense will make statements and prosecutors will give their sentencing recommendation.
Semena expressed confidence that he will be found not guilty despite the politically charged nature of the trial on the Russian-controlled Ukrainian peninsula and the fact that acquittals are very rare in Russian courts.
"The trial has proceeded in such a contradictory way, and we have provided so much material supporting a journalist's right to free speech under Russian and international law, that I think I will be acquitted," Semena said.
He said he expects to testify at the hearing.
"We will continue proving my innocence, my right to express my thoughts freely, and my right to take part in any discussions no matter what is my point of view," Semena said.
The charge against the 66-year-old Semena stems from an article he wrote for RFE/RL's Krym.Realii (Crimea Realities) website in 2015.
The Kremlin-installed prosecutor in Crimea charged that the article had called for the violation of Russia's territorial integrity.
Earlier in the trial, linguist Elena Novozhilova testified that, in her opinion, Semena's article did not contain calls for the violation of Russia's territorial integrity.
Semena, whose trial started in March, faces up to five years in prison if convicted.
He contends that the accusation is baseless and politically motivated, and that Russian authorities have based the case on an inaccurate Russian translation of his original Ukrainian text.
Rights groups say the trial is part of a systematic Russian clampdown on independent media and dissent in Crimea since Moscow's armed occupation and takeover of the Black Sea peninsula in 2014.