Mother of Crimean Tatar jailed in Russia says on hunger strike:
By the Crimean Desk of RFE/RL's Ukrainian Service
The mother of a jailed Crimean Tatar man says she has started a hunger strike, calling on the Russian authorities to release her son, who was convicted of terrorism charges.
Raime Primova told RFE/RL that she started the hunger strike on June 20 after sending a request to Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB) to demand her son, Nuri Primov, be freed.
Primova said she was only drinking water and a doctor was monitoring her health.
Primov was arrested in Russian-controlled Crimea in 2016 and later convicted of being a member of the banned Hizb ut-Tahrir Islamist group.
Primov, who denied the charge, is serving a five-year sentence in a penal colony in the Russian republic of Mari El.
Moscow's takeover of Crimea in March 2014 was vocally opposed by many members of the Crimea Tatar population, who make up a sizable minority on the peninsula.
Rights groups and Western governments have denounced what they call a campaign of repression targeting members of the Turkic-speaking Crimean Tatars and others who opposed Moscow's seizure of the peninsula.
G7 ambassadors "deeply concerned" about Sentsov"
By RFE/RL
Ambassadors of the Group of Seven (G7) leading industrialized states say they are "deeply concerned" about the situation of film director Oleh Sentsov and "other Ukrainian prisoners and detainees" in Russia.
"Their release, as part of a broader bilateral exchange of detainees, would be an important humanitarian step forward," the countries' ambassadors to Kyiv said in a joint statement released via Twitter on June 21.
The G7 consists of Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Britain, and the United States.
Separately, the U.S. Embassy in Kyiv urged Russia to act as the eyes of the international community were on the country that is hosting the World Cup soccer tournament.
"With the world watching the World Cup, Russia should allow access to all Ukrainian prisoners, including film director Oleg Sentsov, who is in his 2nd month of a hunger strike in a Russian prison," the embassy tweeted.
Sentsov, a vocal opponent of Russia's 2014 annexation of Crimea, is currently on hunger strike while serving a 20-year sentence in far-northern Russia.
A native of Crimea, he is demanding the release of 64 Ukrainian citizens he considers political prisoners.
The 41-year-old was sentenced in 2015 for conspiracy to commit terror acts, charges he and human rights groups say were politically motivated.
Western governments and rights organizations have called for Sentsov to be released, and the Russian human rights group Memorial considers him a political prisoner.
On June 20, the secretary-general of the Council of Europe urged Russia to free him "on humanitarian grounds."
"If there is a need for a request for pardoning him, I would gladly do it on the basis of the European Convention of Human Rights," Thorbjorn Jagland told Russian Ombudswoman Tatyana Moskalkova, the Interfax news agency reported after their meeting in Moscow.
Jagland made the call two days after a dozen leading names in the Russian arts called for President Vladimir Putin to pardon Sentsov.
But Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters that the Ukrainian film director would have to ask for the pardon himself before it could be considered.
U.S., IMF praise Ukrainian anticorruption law but say more work needed:
By RFE/RL
The United States and International Monetary Fund (IMF) are praising Ukraine for enacting legislation to establish an independent anticorruption court, but say more work is needed to complete the reforms and secure more IMF loans.
In a statement issued late on June 20, U.S. State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said the measure signed into law on June 11 took "an important step towards achieving the European future [the Ukrainian] people demanded during the Revolution of Dignity" which toppled a pro-Russian government in 2014.
But she said the Verkhovna Rada should now "quickly amend the law so the proposed court will be able to hear all cases under its jurisdiction, including existing corruption cases."
The parliament should also "pass supplementary legislation to formally establish the court," Nauert said, noting that IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde called for the same additional measures earlier this week.
"These steps will ensure the court is able to help roll back the corruption that threatens Ukraine’s national security, prosperity, and democratic development," Nauert said.
Lagarde has linked further funding for Ukraine under the IMF's $17.5 billion loan program to the anticorruption reforms. She said late on June 19 that the enacted court legislation needed to be amended to ensure the court is effective.
Lagarde said in a statement that she had spoken with President Petro Poroshenko and "we agreed that it is now important for parliament to quickly approve...the necessary amendments to restore the requirement that the [anticorruption court] will adjudicate all cases under its jurisdiction."
The IMF has said that political pressure and bribery remain significant problems in Ukraine, where it says entrenched corruption has deterred foreign investment and reduced Ukraine's potential economic growth rate by about two percentage points a year.
Establishing the anticorruption court is one of three conditions that the IMF has laid down for Ukraine to receive further loans. The other two issues involve raising gas prices closer to market levels and honoring commitments to restrain budget spending.
Lagarde said she and Poroshenko "also agreed to work closely together" on the gas price and budget issues. (w/Reuters)