Russian teacher faces second trial for poetry praising Ukraine:
By RFE/RL
A former teacher of German in Russia's Oryol region who was fired from his job and convicted of inciting ethnic hatred for writing a pro-Ukraine poem says he now faces a new trial over a separate piece of writing.
Aleksandr Byvshev wrote on Facebook on November 3 that police informed a day earlier that their investigation had been completed and the case sent to a court in the region, which is in western Russia close to Ukraine.
In 2014, after his poem To Ukrainian Patriots was published in a local newspaper, Byvshev was deprived of the right to teach, his name was included in the official register of extremists, and all his bank accounts were frozen.
The poem criticized Russia's takeover of Ukraine's Crimea region and Moscow's support for separatists in eastern Ukraine.
In 2015, Byvshev was sentenced to 300 hours of community service after a court found him guilty of inciting ethnic hatred through his poems.
Regional law enforcement officials said in January that they had opened a new investigation over another poem, On The Independence Of Ukraine, which plays on a poem of the same name by the late Nobel Literature laureate Joseph Brodsky.
Byvshev said that the Oryol Regional Court had deemed his poem to be extremist, a finding that enabled investigators to charge him.
Russia seized Crimea in March 2014, sending in troops and staging a referendum denounced as illegal by at least 11 countries.
More than 10,000 people have been killed in the war between Kyiv's forces and Russia-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine since April 2014.
Here's an item that's not directly related to the crisis, but will presumably be of interest to Ukraine-watchers:
Kazakh Blogger Who Fled To Kyiv Ordered Held 60 Days Pending Extradition Decision
A Kyiv court has ordered a Kazakh blogger who fled to Ukraine after criticizing President Nursultan Nazarbaev's government held under arrest for two months as authorities consider handing her over to Kazakhstan.
The Shevchenko District Court ruled late on November 2 that Zhanar Akhmet must remain in detention for 60 days while a decision on her extradition is made.
Akhmet was detained in Kyiv on October 21, based on a Kazakh arrest warrant that accuses her of fraud, and was initially ordered held for 18 days.
Akhmet fled Kazakhstan in March with her 9-year-old son, saying she feared for her safety if she remained in the Central Asian country.
Akhmet told RFE/RL that she decided to flee when she learned from sources that she could face charges of "organizing an illegal group" that uses the Internet to advocate self-immolation.
Akhmet previously faced a series of court hearings in Almaty for alleged legal violations, including jaywalking, that she considered to be harassment by Kazakh authorities.
She says all of the accusations against her have been politically motivated retaliation for her writing.
At least four other Kazakh opposition and rights activists -- Ermek Narymbaev, Moldir Adilova, Aidos Sadyqov, and Natalya Sadyqova -- also have fled to Ukraine in recent years.
Nazarbaev, 77, has held power in Kazakhstan since before the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991.
He has established tight control over politics and the media and tolerates little dissent in the oil-producing country of 18 million. (Gordonua.com, Zn.ua)
Here is today's map of the latest situation in the Donbas conflict zone, according to the Ukrainian Defense Ministry. (CLICK IMAGE TO ENLARGE)
