'Savchenko Was And Is Putin’s Personal Enemy' Lawyer

What You Need To Know:

✓ “The only thing, which was behind this exchange, is overwhelming pressure by Western leaders on Putin himself;”

✓ “Savchenko was and is Putin’s personal enemy;”

✓ While many more Russians and Ukrainians are imprisoned outside of their respective countries, Novikov says that even a draft agreement or decision about their potential exchange is far from being finalized.
 
✓ Other cases do not evoke as much tension or temper as did the case of Savchenko “and if Ukraine proposed some sort of exchange for these people, I believe our Russian authorities will be more eager to agree.”

“The only thing, which was behind this exchange, is overwhelming pressure by Western leaders on Putin himself,” says Ilya Novikov, one of Nadiya Savchenko’s lawyers, about her much anticipated release. After two years spent in Russian prison, Savchenko was exchanged for two Russian military intelligence officers Yerofeyev and Alexandrov, both jailed in Ukraine.

According to Novikov, “Savchenko was and is Putin’s personal enemy” so the Russian president needed somebody or something to exchange in order to explain to Russians why he was releasing a murderer a criminal.

While many more Russians and Ukrainians are imprisoned outside of their respective countries, Novikov says that a draft agreement or decision about their potential exchange is far from being finalized. He adds that the other cases do not evoke as much tension or temper as did the case of Savchenko “and if Ukraine proposed some sort of exchange for these people, I believe our Russian authorities will be more eager to agree.” Yuri Soloshenko and Gennadiy Affanasyev are two Ukrainians who are now in Moscow, and might possibly be released soon due to their deteriorating medical state.

As for the trial of imprisoned Ukrainians Mykola Karpiuk and Stanislav Klykh in the Russian republic of Chechnya, Novikov says it is “just another fake criminal case made up by Russian investigators. It was some sort of middle rank investigative officer start off. It was their way to make a career.”

Hromadske’s Nataliya Gumenyuk and Josh Kovensky spoke to Ilya Novikov, Savchenko’s attorney via Skype on May 29th, 2016.