Hybrid game

Moscow is preparing for the fall a new series of political exacerbation around the self -proclaimed republics of Donbass, according to Kyiv. According to many Ukrainian observers, Russia will try to take a number of steps on partial recognition of the DPR and LPR. These expectations are primarily associated with a criminal case of a Ukrainian from the Luhansk region, Aleksey Sizonovich, convicted by the North Caucasus Military Court of a strict regime for the intention to commit a series of terrorist acts in the Rostov region.

According to the prosecution, before he was arrested in Russia, Sizonovich made explosive devices and undermined trains and monuments to the militia in Lugansk. He was arrested by local security forces, but he escaped from under the convoy-jumped from the bridge over the Kamenka River and sailed in an unknown direction. However, on the run he was not long, a month later he was arrested in Russia.

Alexey Sizonovich, convicted of 12 years for two court hearings

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The court examined the terrorism case for only two meetings

Alexei Sizonovich is 61 years old, but he looks much older. At the trial, he admitted that he did not know how to swim. This was the only statement of the defendant that contradicted the logic of the process. The court examined the case of terrorism at a fantastic speed, in just two meetings, 26 to July 31. And on August 1, in Lugansk, the LPR folk police, a video was distributed in which the representative of the LPR MGB announced the initiation against the "previously convicted citizen of Ukraine Sizonovich" of the criminal case under four articles of the Criminal Code of the LPR. One of them is “state treason”, the rest are associated with “sabotage” and illegal manufacture, marketing, and the transfer of explosives. The most remarkable in the official appeal was the last phrase: "Investigative measures are being held and a request for extradition of the criminal to the Lugansk People’s Republic is being prepared."

In Kyiv, this story was perceived as an attempt to prepare the official transfer to the law enforcement agencies of the Russian Federation of a citizen of Ukraine with the Lugansk residence permit by law enforcement agencies not recognized by the republic as a gesture of partial recognition of at least its justice. People’s deputies, human rights organizations and the authorized by the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine Valery Lutkovskaya joined in an attempt to protect Alexei Sizonovich.

The local human rights activist from Rostov-on-Don Vladislav Ryazantsev learned about the court of the court of Sizonovich. As a result, he was the only one in the courtroom.

All 12 witnesses of the accusations did not appear on the process and the court did not even completely read out their testimonies

“I accidentally learned about this process from the Chat of the press service of the court,” says Radio Liberty Vladislav Ryazantsev . - I was present in my life on the mass of ships, but this one was special. The prosecutor was in a very hast of the process, the lawyer was appointed by the state, all 12 witnesses of the accusations did not appear on the process, and without objection of the parties, the court did not even completely read out their testimonies. The defendant looked like a very tired grandfather, dry, hunched over, with a large tumor on his neck, complaining about pain in his heart. He was either "clogged" or sick or tired. He answered all questions dryly: yes, he admits, repents. Only timidly did he say that he could not swim. The first meeting was four hours, the second is the same - and the verdict. We have the case against terrorism against the local guy Panov, the same judges have been considering for six months already, and the process has been ongoing, there is one more thing against two girls, and the court has been going on for four months, and then everything has become a week.

Sizonovich was registered in the village of Sukhoi, Lugansk region, and lived in Krasnodon. Both Krasnodon and dry debt are now in the territory controlled by the self -proclaimed LPR. For a lightning -otic Rostov court and the first demand for the extradition of a Ukrainian citizen in the history of the self -proclaimed republic was paid attention to by People's Deputy Nadezhda Savchenko. Her reaction was fast: she turned to the Ukrainian Ombudsman Valeria Lutkovskaya with a request to quickly deal with this problem, public organizations involved in the protection of Ukrainian citizens in Russia joined in the case. The first goal was to search for relatives of Sizonovich who could join the defense process and hire a lawyer on their own behalf.

“I really turned to Valeria Lutkovskaya as the authorized Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine for Human Rights with a request to apply for extradition to serve the sentence of a citizen of Ukraine Sizonovich from Russia to Ukraine to make a precedent to be issued by our citizen of the so -called justice in the uncontrolled territory,” says Nadezhda Savchenko Radio Liberty. - I really think that Russia can create such a precedent. In the end, without looking at the fact that the occupied territories are not recognized anywhere in the world, however, Russia recognized the passports of the so -called LPR and the DPR? There is a risk of continuing such a tactics of the "hybrid recognition" of these territories and the fact that Sizonovich will become a victim of this process. We talked with Lutkovskaya again later, and she said that she had already sent an appeal in the name of Tatyana Moskalkova ( authorized person for human rights in the Russian Federation. - RS ). I submitted an official deputy request to get the text of this appeal in the Sizonovich case. As soon as I get it, it will be voiced for the general public.

The famous Ukrainian human rights activist Maria Tomak was engaged in the search for relatives and lawyers. The most high -profile case in Russia was a process over the Ukrainians Stanislav Klykh and Nikolai Karpyuk, whom the court in Grozny condemned for the murder of Russian soldiers during the first Chechen war for a long time. Numerous defense witnesses claimed that Klykh and Karpyuk were physically not in Chechnya either in 1994–95 or later. Maria Tomak went to Grozny and played in court as a witness of defense.

Alexei Sizonovich was a lonely person who does not maintain a relationship with his family. But Maria Tomak managed to find his direct relatives in Ukraine.

There are many obvious spots in this matter, for example, it is not clear how he got to Russia, there is a suspicion that the LPR MGB transferred him to the Russian law enforcement agencies

“ We found the family of Alexei Sizonovich, and his sister as his legal representative can hire a lawyer for his brother, ” says Maria Tomak . - In this matter, there are many obscure spots, for example, it is not clear how he got to Russia, there is a suspicion that the LPR MGB transferred him to the Russian law enforcement agencies. All these stories with jumping into the river and a flight from the convoy of an elderly person who does not know how to swim, look just funny. Well, the synchronism of the unusually fast court in Russia and the distribution of appeal to the LPR MGB with a demand for its extradition suggests that Alexei Sizonovich could really be a hostage to Russian political games.

The tactics of Ukraine are approximately clear - to give qualified legal protection to his citizen, apply for appeal, tighten the process, demand the extradition of the prisoner to his homeland. In the future , to file a Sizonovich for exchange. Vladislav Ryazantsev says that on the last possible day, the local lawyer nevertheless filed a brief appeal for the verdict of Sizonovich. And Maria Tomak said that the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry sent a request to visit the prisoner by the Ukrainian consul, but so far no permission was received.

The court decision and the LPR requirement on extradition caused noise and political complications in Kyiv

The tactics of Russia in this process can be varied. Already now, the court decision and the LPR requirement on extradition caused noise and political complications in Kyiv. You can stop at this stage, you can, as a negotiation position, continue to discuss the possible transfer of a person with a Ukrainian passport in the LPR in the case of "treason of the homeland." And it is possible, as one of the stages of a "political offensive" to Ukraine, to recognize the Ministry of Defense of the LPR as a full -fledged partner of Russian justice.

Recently, in Moscow, they started talking about the possibility of steps on partial legalization of the LDNR in Russia in response to the unyielding position of Ukraine in the Minsk process. In particular, the possibility of participation of representatives of the LDNR in the work of economic and cultural structures of the CIS with a sign "Ukraine" was discussed, sources in Moscow say. Since the Donbass, as a result of the implementation of the Minsk agreements, should receive some cultural autonomy and the right to foreign economic activity, work in the CIS structures is quite “within the framework of the Minsk process”. In addition, the possibility of participating in the LDNR delegation as a "Ukrainian" at the World Festival of Youth and Students, which will be held in October in Sochi, is discussed. The story with Sizonovich in Kyiv tends to put on a par with these initiatives.