Skhemy investigative journalists report that Ukrainian MP and wealthy businessman Oleksandr Hereha has effectively retained his business in Crimea despite Russia’s occupation and in breach of both Ukrainian and international sanctions.  Hereha and his wife Halyna are using the same implausible denial and tricks used by Siemens and other international firms breaching sanctions. 

An analysis of the selection of Supreme Court judges in retrospective by Luba Zimanova Beardsley, member of the Strategic Group of Advisors for support of the reforms.

A ‘court’ in Russian-occupied Crimea has sentenced Andriy Zakhtei to six and a half years’ imprisonment after he was effectively tricked into ‘cooperating’ with the investigators

A ‘court’ in Russian-occupied Crimea has sentenced Andriy Zakhtei to six and a half years’ imprisonment after he was effectively tricked into ‘cooperating’ with the investigators

The Donetsk Regional Court of Appeal has rejected former Donbas militant Vadim Pogodin’s appeal against his life sentence for the brutal torture and killing in 2014 of 16-year-old Stepan Chubenko.  The ruling is important, although justice remains very far off.  The original sentence was passed in absentia, after Russia demonstrated that it would protect even a child-killer and refused to hand Pogodin over for trial.

Yevhen Karakashev, an anarchist activist from Yevpatoria who has taken part in pickets calling for the release of Oleksandr Kolchenko, Oleg Sentsov and other political prisoners, has himself been remanded in custody, after almost certainly being brutally beaten by the police.

The men are facing sentences of 15 years or more on unproven charges of involvement in a peaceful organization which is legal in Ukraine. Amnesty International has declared human rights activist Emir-Usein Kuku a prisoner of conscience, however the same applies to all six men who are imprisoned for their faith, and in some cases because of their civic position or out of revenge for their refusal to collaborate with Russia’s FSB.

The men are facing sentences of 15 years or more on unproven charges of involvement in a peaceful organization which is legal in Ukraine. Amnesty International has declared human rights activist Emir-Usein Kuku a prisoner of conscience, however the same applies to all six men who are imprisoned for their faith, and in some cases because of their civic position or out of revenge for their refusal to collaborate with Russia’s FSB.

Oleksandr Khomchenko, the courageous Donetsk pastor tortured for his active participation in the Prayer Marathon under a Ukrainian flag in 2014, has died after a long illness, aged 59. Father Oleksandr gave vital testimony about Russian war crimes in Donbas, and was a People’s Hero of Ukraine

A Russian-controlled ‘court’ has again extended the detention of Yevhen Panov, the 40-year-old Ukrainian who is single-handedly obstructing the Russian FSB’s first ‘Crimean sabotage plot’ He is currently being offered better conditions and a shorter ‘sentence’ if he agrees to take on Russian citizenship. He rejects them all and is adamant that he a citizen only of Ukraine.

A Russian-controlled ‘court’ has again extended the detention of Yevhen Panov, the 40-year-old Ukrainian who is single-handedly obstructing the Russian FSB’s first ‘Crimean sabotage plot’ He is currently being offered better conditions and a shorter ‘sentence’ if he agrees to take on Russian citizenship. He rejects them all and is adamant that he a citizen only of Ukraine.

Prosecutor General Yury Lutsenko has acknowledged that blogger Vsevolod Filimonenko is a ‘provocateur’, yet rejects any suggestion that the prosecution of Vitaliy Shabunin over an incident involving Filimonenko constitutes persecution of Shabunin, a well-known anti-corruption activist.  His view was not shared from the outset by many civic and media organizations in Ukraine and western observers, and the first court hearing on February 9 only heightened deep scepticism over this prosecution.

Prosecutor General Yury Lutsenko has acknowledged that blogger Vsevolod Filimonenko is a ‘provocateur’, yet rejects any suggestion that the prosecution of Vitaliy Shabunin over an incident involving Filimonenko constitutes persecution of Shabunin, a well-known anti-corruption activist.  His view was not shared from the outset by many civic and media organizations in Ukraine and western observers, and the first court hearing on February 9 only heightened deep scepticism over this prosecution.

Former Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili is now in Warsaw, having been forcibly detained and deported from Ukraine on February 12.  He was not arrested, and not sent back to Georgia to face imprisonment on charges which many suspect are politically-motivated.  That makes the cosmetics of the situation a touch better, but is still very far from being, as Ukrainian Border Guard spokesperson Oleh Slobodyan claimed, “in compliance with all legal procedure”. 

Russia’s FSB [Security Service] has reported the arrest of another Ukrainian for alleged ‘spying’, with the only deviation of the FSB’s pattern being the claim that the ‘secret information’ supposedly passed to Ukraine’s Security Service was about the FSB itself. 

Russia’s FSB [Security Service] has reported the arrest of another Ukrainian for alleged ‘spying’, with the only deviation of the FSB’s pattern being the claim that the ‘secret information’ supposedly passed to Ukraine’s Security Service was about the FSB itself. 

Almost three years after Ukrainian journalist Oles Buzyna was shot dead near his home in Kyiv, two men have gone on trial, charged with his murder. If Buzyna was a highly controversial figure, so too is ‘C 14’, the far-right organization that the suspects – Andriy Medvedko and Denis Polishchuk – are linked with.

When a case that began with the arrest and death of an 83-year-old veteran of the Crimean Tatar national movement seems to have hit rock bottom, Russia’s FSB proves it can sink even lower.

When a case that began with the arrest and death of an 83-year-old veteran of the Crimean Tatar national movement seems to have hit rock bottom, Russia’s FSB proves it can sink even lower.

When a case that began with the arrest and death of an 83-year-old veteran of the Crimean Tatar national movement seems to have hit rock bottom, Russia’s FSB proves it can sink even lower.