Russia to free Ukraine pilot Savchenko, lawyer says

Nadyia Savchenko, a Ukrainian pilot jailed by Russia, will most likely be freed in a prisoner exchange in the next few weeks, her lawyer has told EUobserver.

“We expect that within maybe two or three weeks this will be realised … we have very good signals that this will be the probable ending of the story,” her lawyer, IIya Novikov, said from Russia on Wednesday (23 March).

He said EU and US diplomats are in talks with Russia on the issue.

“There are many channels, but I’m putting my hope in the visit of the US secretary of state John Kerry i to Moscow this week. I know from a very reliable source that Savchenko is one of the most important questions on his agenda,” Novikov said.

He noted that US president Barack Obama i recently spoke out on her case. “Before I heard that, I would have thought it’s impossible,” Novikov said.

According to the EU, Savchenko was abducted from Ukraine by Russia-linked forces two years ago. She was taken to Russia and put through a show trial for her alleged role in the death of two Russian reporters.

Russia says she crossed the border herself and, on Tuesday, sentenced her to 22 years in prison.

Novikov said she’ll most likely be exchanged for one or two Russian soldiers or intelligence officers captured by Ukraine.

He said the fact she was sentenced the same day as the Brussels terrorist attack meant little.

“She might not be the top headline, but diplomats know very well what they have to do,” he said.

He said Russia wants to “get rid of the problem” after she became an irritant in diplomatic relations. “From the beginning of March, any discussion that Russia takes part in starts with the question: ‘What about Nadyia Savchenko?’,” the lawyer said.

He also said her prosecution was so blatantly rigged it became an embarassment to the Kremlin.

“Even the Russian president [Vladimir Putin] understood … that if he recognised it he would lose face,” Novikov said.

He said Putin has could wield a presidential pardon. “Whatever he [Putin] says happens in a matter of days, if not hours,” Novikov said.

Other options include freeing her under the prisoner exchange clause in the so-called Minsk ceasefire accord on Ukraine or letting her serve her sentence in Ukraine.

Novikov said Russia had tried to get bigger concessions.

He said he heard “rumours” it asked the EU and US to recognise Russia’s annexation of Crimea or to relax their sanctions on Russia, but “such things were clearly out of the question.”

He said Savchenko is in good psychological and physical health, despite her on-off hunger strikes.

“She has an adamant nature. We couldn’t have gotten so far with her if she was the type of person that could be broken in prison,” he said.

A senior EU source told EUobserver that Brussels also expects to quickly secure Savchenko's release.

The contact said her exchange would follow a previous model, when Estonia handed over an ethnic Russian charged with espionage in return for Eston Kohver, an intelligence officer whom it said Russia abducted from Estonian territory.

Others at risk

If she is released, it would still leave 27 other Ukrainian nationals whom Kiev has said are being illegally detained by Russia.

Novikov said two of them are in “serious danger.”

One, Yury Soloshenko, is 73 years old and in poor health, but has been sentenced to six years hard labour on espionage charges. The other, Stanislav Klich, a journalist, risks being sent to a psychiatric facility.

“If they say he’s insane, he’ll disppear. Neither lawyers nor the Ukrainian consulate have any access to such facilities,” Novikov said.

“I believe the Ukrainian foreign ministry has some plan for these people also,” he added, without giving details.

Novikov was a criminal law attorney at a private firm prior to taking on four out of the 28 Ukrainian cases, two of them pro bono.

He said he’s doing the work in a private capacity because the cases are, in political terms, so “radioactive” they would have destroyed his law firm.

He said the high profile of the Savchenko case has afforded him a degree of protection.

He said he has so far disregarded threats against him made in the media and on internet sites.

“But this case is almost over and we’re very concerned for our own safety when this comes to an end,” he said, referring to himself and his two associates.

Rule of law

Novikov said he took the Savchenko job not for “humanitarian” reasons but in order to defend rule of law in Russia.

“It’s not about a woman crying for mercy. It’s about justice,” he said.

MPs in Estonia and in Lithuania have called on the EU to put the 30 or so judges and prosecutors deemed guilty of her detention under a visa ban.

But Novikov said he would rather see the Russian VIPs who put pressure on the courts to be held accountable.

“Some very important politicians and officials said prior to the verdict that she’s guilty … it would be very appropriate for them to be made responsible,” he said.

“In Russia, when a high official makes that kind of statement it makes a material diffrence [to the judge’s decision],” he said.