GUILTY AND READY TO EXCHANGE

Abstract

(By special correspondents Nadezhda Prusenkova and Anton Naumlyuk. Novaya gazeta, April 20, 2016, p. 3. Condensed text:) Yevgeny Yerofeyev and Aleksandr Aleksandrov were captured by Ukrainian soldiers during a battle in Lugansk Province in May 2015 [see Current Digest, Vol. 67, No. 21, pp. 3 - 5]. According to investigators, two Russians were fighting on side of self-proclaimed Lugansk republic as active employees of Russian GRU [Chief Intelligence Administration]. The prosecution indicted them on six charges under Ukraine’s Criminal Code: participation in a terrorist terrorism, waging aggressive warfare, illegal border crossing, smuggling and illegal arms trafficking. The defense insists that Aleksandrov and Yerofeyev arrived in Lugansk after they had been discharged from [Russian] Armed Forces, then they signed a contract to serve in ranks of people’s militia. ... The wounded Yerofeyev was taken to a Kramatorsk hospital, where he first said that he was a Russian serviceman. Yerofeyev later retracted his words, explaining that Ukrainian Security Service investigators had led him to believe that if he said he belonged to GRU, then he would be exchanged as a prisoner of war: Otherwise, he would face trial as a member of a terrorist group. At end of interrogation, he said that he and Aleksandrov had agreed in advance that, in order to save their lives and get exchanged, they would have to lie and say they were active Russian military personnel. ... In essence, main question that was supposed to be answered by [the trial in Kiev’s] Goloseyevsky [District] Court was this: Are Yerofeyev and Aleksandrov Russian soldiers or volunteer combatants, who could be considered prisoners of war and fall under jurisdiction of humanitarian law? ... The word has accompanied two men’s entire trial, from start to finish - even more at finish than at start. ... Readers may recall that on June 17, 2014, VGTRK [All-Russia State Television and Radio Company] journalists Anton Voloshin and Igor Kornelyuk were killed in a shelling attack near [Ukrainian] village of Metallist. The [Russian] Investigation Committee promptly instituted criminal proceedings. That very day, as luck would have it, Lugansk separatists captured Ukrainian servicewoman Nadezhda Savchenko [see Current Digest, Vol. 66, No. 29, pp. 3 - 6]. [The media] started hyping up story right away: female sniper, call sign Pulya [Bullet], [Ukrainian Army] officer, admits to directing fire, etc. Savchenko was immediately saddled with a load of charges: waging aggressive warfare, murdering civilians (the Russian IC blamed her for deaths of Ukrainian residents), and murdering journalists for motives of hatred. ... The investigation was already nearly wrapped up by beginning of 2015, and trial began in September. ... But in May 2015, Ukrainian side got its own gift: Yerofeyev and Aleksandrov were captured. And two Russians got a matching load of charges. ... That was context in which word came up: the Ukrainian officer for Russian officers. ... The Russian side took part in bargaining, but stated at all levels that the court will make determination. In other words, no exchange could happen until a trial took place. There is no legal procedure for exchanging foreign citizens [accused of crimes], but there are two options: pardon them, or send them back home to serve out their time. Demands to release Savchenko came in from all over world: from [US President Barack] Obama and [Secretary of State John] Kerry to European leaders and legislators. No one demanded anything of kind for Yerofeyev or Aleksandrov, but Russian Federation Council confirmed that it was looking into possibility of exchanging them for Savchenko. Ukrainian President Pyotr Poroshenko also proposed such an exchange. ... In March [2016], despite expert assessments and alibis, Donetsk [City] Court of Rostov Province found Nadezhda Savchenko guilty of two counts of murder (the journalists), one count of attempted murder (an operator) and illegal crossing of Russian border [see Current Digest, Vol. 68, No. 12, pp. 6 - 9]. Investigators dropped charges of waging aggressive warfare and murdering civilians. ... The [two] Russians’ trial was packed into 26 sessions. ... The Ukrainian side had chance to make this process seamless, even from a legal standpoint. But they did not use it. To very end, Yerofeyev and Aleksandrov stood accused of waging aggressive warfare (despite blatant lack of evidence) and taking part in LPR terrorist organization, although no court has ever recognized as such. The prosecutors have also said openly that they are using [legal] wording of this case to subsequently recognize activists as terrorists. In end, prosecution asked for Russians to be deprived of freedom for 15 years, with confiscation of their property and prohibition from occupying military posts in Ukraine.