And here's another news item, this time from RFE/RL's Ukrainian Service:
Yanukovych's Treason Trial Set To Restart
The in-absentia treason trial of former Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych is due to restart today.
At the last hearing, held on July 12, a court in Kyiv adjourned the trial after Yanukovych’s new lawyer, Vitaliy Meshechek, asked for more time to prepare.
The former president's previous lawyers withdrew from the case on July 6, saying Yanukovych had informed them that he did not need their services anymore.
Yanukovych announced on that day that he would not participate in the trial, charging that it was politically motivated. The court then decided to provide him with a state-appointed lawyer.
Yanukovych abandoned office in late February 2014 and fled to Russia in the face of protests triggered by his decision to scrap plans for a landmark deal with the European Union and improve trade ties with Moscow instead.
Dozens of people were killed when his government attempted to clamp down on the pro-European protests known as the Euromaidan.
Prosecutors are seeking life imprisonment for Yanukovych, who is accused of treason, violating Ukraine's sovereignty and territorial integrity, and abetting Russian aggression.
After he fled, Russia seized Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula and fomented opposition to the central government in eastern Ukraine, where the ensuing war between Kyiv's forces and Russia-backed separatists has killed more than 10,000 people.
Good morning. We'll get the live blog rolling today with this update from our news desk on Mykola Semena's trial:
Trial Of Crimean Journalist Semena Set To Resume In Simferopol
Russian-appointed judges at a court in Ukraine's occupied Crimea region are scheduled to conduct a new hearing on August 3 in the trial of Mykola Semena, an RFE/RL contributor who is fighting what he says is a politically motivated separatism charge.
The judge at the trial in the Crimean capital, Simferopol, agreed at the last hearing on July 18 to include the UN General Assembly's December 2016 resolution on human rights in Crimea -- which was seized by Russia in 2014 -- in the case documents.
While testifying at the hearing, witnesses and experts called by the defense also sought to discredit the results of a linguistic examination conducted by Olga Ivanova of the Crimean branch of Russia’s FSB security service.
The charge against the 66-year-old Semena stems from an article he wrote for RFE/RL's Krym.Realii (Crimea Realities) website in 2015.
The Kremlin-installed prosecutor in Crimea charged that the article had called for the violation of Russia’s territorial integrity.
But linguist Elena Novozhilova said that she had found many mistakes in Ivanova's examination of Semena’s article. She testified that, in her opinion, the article does not contain any calls for the violation of Russia's territorial integrity.
Semena’s trial has been delayed several times since it started in late March.
Semena faces up to five years in prison if convicted.
He contends that the accusation is baseless and politically motivated, and that Russian authorities have based the case on an inaccurate Russian translation of his original Ukrainian text.
Activists say Semena's trial is part of a systemic Russian clampdown on independent media and dissent in Crimea since Moscow's armed occupation and takeover of the Ukrainian region.
That concludes our live-blogging of the Ukraine crisis for Wednesday, August 2, 2017. Check back here in the morning for more of our continuing coverage.
An excerpt:
Ukrainian officials insist they are still working Sheremet’s case. President Petro Poroshenko, who met with a CPJ fact-finding delegation on July 11, said he remains committed to bringing the killer(s) to justice. Poroshenko even proposed adding an international partner to his government’s investigation, which could invigorate the probe. But while this is a welcome move, it comes very late, and after months of missteps that have shaken the public’s trust.
Factually incorrect statements from top officials, including Ukraine’s interior minister, Arsen Avakov, have undermined the credibility of the investigation. Avakov has alleged Russian involvement in Sheremet’s murder and suggested that the case is unlikely to be solved. But in meetings with investigating agencies, the CPJ was told that Avakov has limited access to investigation files, and that his statements are unsupported by evidence. Our delegation was also told that the authorities are examining several motives, but have not ruled out – or pinpointed – any single one. Why, then, does Avakov continue to make contradictory statements and indulge in poorly sourced conjecture?
Tillerson Says U.S.-Russia Relations 'Under Considerable Stress'
U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said the United States would continue to focus on areas of mutual interest with Russia, such as defeating terrorism, despite "considerable stress" in ties and a new sanctions bill adopted by Congress in July. Tillerson spoke at a news briefing on August 1. He is scheduled to meet Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on the sidelines of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) ministerial gathering in Manila on August 5-6. (Reuters)
