#BREAKING 2 frm #Russian military sentenced for 14y in prison & swapped for #Ukraine pilot #Savchenko R home. #Kievpic.twitter.com/M5tFZQ16shPutin ratified Savchenko's pardon, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said, adding that the Russian leader signed the document simultaneously with the arrival of Erofeev and Aleksandrov in Moscow.
— Maria Finoshina (@MFinoshina_RT) May 25, 2016
Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko also signed a decree to pardon Russian citizens Evgeny Erofeev and Aleksandr Aleksandrov. The decree is dated May 24.
Savchenko has already been delivered to Kiev on a Ukrainian plane.
#Savchenko back in Ukraine after swap deal between Moscow & Kiev https://t.co/TXsQ40qDUqpic.twitter.com/GcxTXXkwUJIn March, a Russian court found Ukrainian pilot Savchenko guilty of murdering Russian journalists Igor Kornelyuk and Anton Voloshin near Lugansk, eastern Ukraine, and of illegally crossing the Russian border.
— RT (@RT_com) May 25, 2016
According to prosecutors, she relayed the coordinates of a checkpoint where the two reporters were subsequently killed by the Ukrainian Aidar Battalion artillery fire near the town of Metalist in June 2014. The attack also resulted in the deaths of Ukrainian civilians. Afterwards, Savchenko illegally crossed the border into Russia.
Russian citizens Evgeny Erofeev and Aleksandr Aleksandrov were sentenced in Ukraine in April to 14 years each in prison after a district court in Kiev found them guilty of terrorist activities.
Both Erofeev and Aleksandrov maintain their innocence. The two men were captured in Donbass in May 2015, with Kiev claiming they were Russian servicemen. The Russian Defense Ministry officially denied the allegations, stating that neither Erofeev nor Aleksandrov was serving in the Russian Army at that time.
#BREAKING Wives of 2 #Russians detained in #Ukraine waiting their husbands after they swapped for #Savchenko. #Kievpic.twitter.com/xOhHVkbngaWhen the aircraft with Aleksandrov and Erofeev landed in Moscow, their wives, Ekaterina and Yulia respectively, were there to meet them.
— Maria Finoshina (@MFinoshina_RT) May 25, 2016
"We were waiting for them, we were very worried and hoped for their return," Yulia Erofeeva said.
It has been revealed that in March, relatives of the slain journalists, Kornelyuk and Voloshin, addressed Putin with a plea to pardon Savchenko.
The president met with Kornelyuk's widow, Ekaterina, and Voloshin's sister, Maryana, on Wednesday to personally express his gratitude for their position.
"I want to thank you for your position and express hope that such a decision, motivated by humanitarian considerations in the first place, will lead to a de-escalation of the confrontation in a certain conflict zone and will help to avoid similar terrible and needless losses. Thank you very much," Putin told the relatives of the deceased journalists.
Russia and Putin’s Pardon: What a Class Act! Compare and contrast 'Our'/'The West's' puny yet somehow STILL-dwindling vestige of honor / goodness.
Please realize that this Putin-pardoned Scumqueen, air pilot "Savchenko" , radioed in a 'hit' to kill two journalists, which - unsurprisingly as the weapon for the ‘hit’ was long range artillery - inevitably included a bit of collateral damage, e.g., dead civilians (and soldiers?) at/near a border-like checkpoint or roadblock.
Meanwhile, the exchanged Russians? What had THEY done? Nothing. They were charged and tried by a falsely claimed “Ukranian Government”* prosecution team (i.e., flunkies of an organization owned by 'the West,'). on generic intent/'thought crimes,' or such. ‘Conviction,’ of course, was assured by a kangaroo court that proverbially 'lept' (leapt/leaped) over any and all obstacles (such as fairness and due-process) to achieve:
1. A verdict of guilty; and,
2. A result that also provided that corrupt court 'plausibly deniability' [E.g.,One lawyer in this 'show trial'** of those two now-exchanged Russians was, kidnapped, tortured and killed, while his office was burglarized - link above and at
Murdered: Lawyer for Russian fighter kidnapped, 'drugged, wired to a bomb' in Ukraine
A lawyer who defended a Russian citizen accused in Ukraine of being a Russian terrorist has been killed. His body was found buried in a rural area three weeks after his disappearance in Kiev. The...My heart breaks to realize how America and the West have lost so much goodness and honor so quickly. There was a time when we had a lot more of those fine traits about us - far less than we believed, I grant - but still hugely more than what puny vestige now remains.
R.C.
* Resulting from an undeniable UK/USRael/’Western’ Coup de tat.
**Remember when Kangaroo Courts were the primary province of Stalin, and U.S. sponsored tinpot dictators/'governments'?*** Well - such are still alive and well in Ukraine, and countless other Western-co-opted 'sovereign' countries.
*** Please pardon redundancy.
RC