"First goal to Putin"

So called in Kyiv the next stage of the global action for saving Ukrainian political prisoners

... eleven in the morning. At the asphalt hot from the sun, right at the gates of the European Union’s office in Ukraine, the young man draws a chalk map of the Russian Federation with a chalk. Crimea on the map, of course, no. But there is a barbed wire that wraps the country around the perimeter and regions.

-In English, “boycott” with two “T”, right? - the guy clarifies from the journalists who take off his work. This is Volodya Kuznetsov, a culturologist, one of the organizers of the collection. A fashionable official at a gyro scooter hurrying to work, slows down and carefully circles the drawing.

There are a lot of television cameras, most national television channels lead a live broadcast. Participants in the action, civil activists and Kyivians who learned about the event through Facebook are standing with posters who urge the European Parliament deputies to adopt a resolution demanding that the Russian authorities immediately release Oleg Sentsov and other political prisoners, introduce personal sanctions against those who falsified their criminal cases, as well as boycott the World Football Championship. There are posters, dedicated specifically to the 2018 World Cup, the authorship of the famous artist-illustrator Andrei Ermolenko: the “clogwate”, stained with blood, hits the ball similar to the skull.

Sentsov in the White Bear colony has been starving for the 33rd day, and in conclusion is the fourth year. Alexander Kolchenko had to stop the hunger strike, begun from solidarity with Oleg: the blood sugar levels fell sharply, fainting went. Another Crimean, Vladimir Balukh, refuses to eat for more than 80 days, his life is at risk. More than 70 people from Ukraine remain in the Russian Federation convicts of fabricated charges.

I will quote the famous Ukrainian publicist Julia Pyatetskaya.

“The beginning of the hunger strike Oleg Sentsov coincided with the birthday of Andrei Sakharov, with the release of the three -volume, Anatoly Marchenko, with the day of memory of victims of political repression - in general, much was looped into a tight loop of time. The good intentions of the Gorbachev thaw, perestroika, publicity, democracy and pluralism of opinions in an incomprehensible way turned out to be steps in the new Hell. “When I hear the word“ good ”, I take a hat and leave,” said another political station Varlam Shalamov ... Sign petitions, collective letters, take part in mass promotions, go out with pickets, write in social networks. Write to Oleg in Labytnangi, ”Pyatetskaya recalls. “And yet. The slogan “Freedom to Oleg Sentsov!”, With which the network is replete for the second week - not what he entered the hunger strike. His only requirement is the liberation of all Ukrainian political prisoners, he would never have starved only for himself. Do not be silent, but do not devalue what he is now putting his life now. Hear Oleg Sentsov. "

The gates behind which are several guards remain closed. But on the upper platform, at the EU flag (the office center is located on a elevation fenced with a brick wall), a man appears in a civilian, apparently studying inscriptions on asphalt and posters, and retells to someone on the phone.

The young film director Anastasia Starozitskaya reads through Megaphone a name list and prison deadlines for Ukrainian political prisoners in Russia. Then the organizers announce the text of the appeal to the European Parliament, the present put signatures. The “messenger” is sent from the gate: the plenipotentiary will be released soon, accept the letter and answer questions.

Yurgis Vilchinskas, head of the EU press and information department in Ukraine, stoically transfers heat in a black suit:

- Thanks for the letter, we will consider it and give an answer. But I can immediately say that the European Union has already paid attention to the fact that Oleg Sentsov and Alexander Kolchenko and other Ukrainians who were convicted in the Russian Federation with the violation of international law. They must be released. The international community also sees that the observance of human rights after the illegal annexation of the Crimean peninsula has worsened very much - big problems with freedom of speech and freedom of assembly. We urge the Russian side to solve these problems according to international rules.

Vladimir Kuznetsov: - But we will continue the shares indefinitely, like Oleg ...

Vilchinskas: - You know well that all measures, sanctions that depend on the European Union are accepted. And it is difficult for me to comment on what can still be done, because decisions are made at the highest level.

Journalists ask: - Britain, Denmark, Sweden and Iceland and a number of other countries declared a political boycott to the football world championship in Russia. Will other EU countries join?

Vilchinskas: - I also can’t comment, because here the question should be addressed to the countries themselves - members of the European Union. Each country decides to what extent the decision on the boycott will be made.

An hour later, it becomes known: 455 deputies of the European Parliament adopted a resolution demanding that the Russian government immediately and unconditionally release Sentsov and all other citizens of Ukraine illegally detained in Russia and Crimea. In addition, the Euro -deputies demand the immediate liberation of the director of the Memorial human rights center in Chechnya Oyub Titiev and other prisoners of conscience. The resolution also calls on the EU to condemn the violation of human rights in Russia and "attempts to hide them under the cover of the World Cup."