From the MT:
“Pro-Ukranian
Activist from Crimea Gets 5 Years on Terrorism Charges”
A Russian court
has sentenced a pro-Ukrainian activist from annexed Crimea to five years in a
maximum-security penal colony and one year in prison on terrorism charges,
Interfax reported. Oleg Prikhodko, 62,
openly opposed Russia’s annexation of Crimea, hung the Ukrainian flag from his
house and refused to switch his license plates to Russian ones, the Current
Time news site reported. Russia’s
Southern District Military Court found Prikhodko guilty Wednesday on charges of
planning terrorist attacks in the Crimean town of Saki and the Ukrainian city
of Lviv. He has been ordered to pay a fine of 110,000 rubles ($1,500) in
addition to his prison sentence. Prikhodko pleaded not guilty to the charges
and maintains that he is not part of any extremist or terrorist group. Prosecutors
had requested an 11-year sentence and a 200,000-ruble fine.
Russian Federal
Security Service (FSB) officers detained Prikhodko in October 2019 on charges
of illegal explosives manufacture and attempting to commit a terrorist act. The
FSB described him as "an adherent of Nazi ideology who is a member of
Ukrainian extremist organizations." During searches of his garage, FSB
officers found an improvised explosive device, Molotov cocktails and tools for
making the homemade explosives, the RBC news website reported. Prikhodko claims
the explosives were planted there by the authorities. Officers also seized
Ukrainian symbols, flags of the nationalist Svoboda party, red and black flags
and a portrait of Ukrainian nationalist Stepan Bandera as well as a computer
and CDs from his home.
Russia annexed
the Crimean peninsula from Ukraine in 2014 in a move that ignited fierce
backlash and sanctions from the international community. Under Russia’s
control, hundreds of people on the peninsula, mainly Crimean Tatars, have been
jailed on terrorism charges, drawing criticism from rights groups who say
Moscow is locking up ideological opponents. Pro-Russian separatists in eastern
Ukraine have also been waging a conflict against Ukrainian forces since 2014,
with more than 13,000 lives lost so far.
^ I don’t know if Prikhodko was actually preparing weapons to attack the occupying Russian forces in Crimea or if the Russians simply made it all up as often happens, but Prikhodko seems like a member of the Crimean Resistance (or Partisans) living in Russian-occupied Crimea and trying to restore Ukrainian sovereignty to Crimea. There are many similarities to what he is doing to what thousands of Soviets living in German-Occupied territory did during World War 2. Or how the East Germans fought the occupying Soviets in 1953, the Hungarians fought the occupying Soviets in 1956, the Czechoslovaks fought the occupying Soviets in 1968, the Georgians fought the occupying Russians in 2007 and the Ukrainians in Crimea and Donbas fight the occupying Russians.
Russia illegally
and unilaterally invaded, occupied and annexed Crimea in 2014 and has worked hard
to destroy everything Ukrainian and Tartar in Crimea. The International Community
does not recognize Russia’s actions in Crimea. ^
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