A march in support of Ukrainian pilot Nadia Savchenko will be held in Moscow on March 1, member of her legal team Mark Feigin tweeted. “As part of the Spring Anti-Crisis March, to be held in Moscow on March 1, 2015, we will march in a column to support the release of Savchenko #FreeSavchenko Join us!” the lawyer appealed.
Novaya Gazeta’s website has hosted a signature drive in support of Savchenko since February 9. As of February 17, 10,530 people stated their support for freeing the Ukrainian pilot, including Lyudmila Ulitskaya, Svetlana Gannushkina, Svetlana Alexievich, Dmitry Muratov, Ksenia Sobchak, Viktor Shenderovich, Andrey Kurkov, and Igor Irtenyev.
However, despite the strong reaction of the international community, the Russian government continues to stand its ground. Head of the State Duma Committee for International Affairs Aleksei Pushkov said on February 12 that there was no automatic release mechanism for Savchenko, and she had to prove her innocence in court.
Meanwhile, Savchenko’s sister Vira believes that Russians “have finally started to prepare for transferring Nadia, maybe they want to move the trial’s date forward from May to April, but she has to be alive by then.” She said it live on Espreso.TV. She earlier wrote a letter to Russian President Vladimir Putin, asking him to exchange Nadia for her. Spokesman for the Russian president Dmitry Peskov assured Vira that Putin would read the letter...
Feigin ruled out moving the Savchenko trial’s date forward to April. “The trial is possible only after the case is completed, the defendant is acquainted with it, and preliminary hearings are held... These stages will take two months at least... The Savchenko case runs to a dozen volumes. Thus, I am skeptical about holding the trial in April,” the lawyer told The Day. Meanwhile, he also noted that exchanging Vira for Nadia “cannot be legally done.” “It looks like a rhetorical message to Putin: How is it different for you what sister you would keep in jail? This public offer means: if you want to torture someone, take me because my sister has been tortured enough,” the lawyer added.
According to Feigin, the Kremlin “is not going to sell Savchenko at the moment.” “This is a political decision, and the Kremlin wants something in return. Bargaining will not start soon, they will not let Nadia Savchenko go just so,” the lawyer believes.
Let us recall that Savchenko was detained in the Donbas in late June and taken to Russia. She stands accused of “illegally crossing” the Russian border and the killing of journalists. Savchenko was elected to the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine in the 2014 election and has been made a member of Ukraine’s PACE delegation, entitling her to the diplomatic immunity.
