Having failed to prevent Euromaidan, Russia is avenging itself on individual activists, including through surreal court trials in Russian-occupied Crimea for alleged actions over which it can have no jurisdiction. The 10-year sentence just upheld against 23-year-old Andriy Kolomiyets has demonstrated that any Ukrainian who took part in Maidan is not safe in occupied Crimea or Russia.
Kolomiyets was sentenced on June 10, 2016 to 10 years’ maximum security prison, with the main charge being over an unproven and unprovable alleged action in Kyiv in Feb. 2014. The other charge is less overtly illegal, yet no less convincing, and the authoritative Memorial Human Rights Centre has already declared Kolomiyets a political prisoner.
