The Canadian Group for Democracy
in Ukraine, of which I am a member, has appealed to Canada’s Prime Minister Justin
Trudeau to make a last-ditch effort to free the parliamentarian who has been
subjected to a show trial in the best of Soviet-Russia tradition. She is accused of murder: Circumstantial evidence categorically rebukes
this. President Vladimir Putin is
determined to break her as she is a relentless critic of his invasion of
Ukraine.
For nearly two years Russia’s
president has played a sadistic cat and mouse game with her because she will
not yield to his will; confess to a false accusation.
Instead, she is a beacon of
strength and a testament to the indomitable spirit of Ukraine determined to
shed Russia’s yoke. The Economist calls
her a Joan of Arc. (It is imperative that Nadiya not become a victim of Putin’s
medieval despotism.)
Ukrainians call her nasha
kochana Nadijka, our beloved. To them she
is the national symbol of resistance to Russia’s “gift” to Ukraine; the Soviet-like
mentality– might is right, corruption, and aggression—which has kept Ukraine
from becoming a great European power it deserves to be. To the world she is the beautiful and
courageous no-sayer to the ugly bullying, terror and deceit of President
Putin’s Russia .
Nadiya is a principled,
feisty and unrelenting warrior for her freedom as well as that of Ukraine and a
test to the democratic world’s commitments to its principles. The perverted judicial proceedings she endures
are nothing less than a Kafka-like nightmare rather than a trial to determine
the truth. Her hunger strike is a stand against
the humiliation and injustice of Russia’s rule of law. She is determined to die rather than live in
Russia’s captivity as a result of this phony trail.
The other day, when asked
about her physical condition, Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov quipped
that “her health is not of concern.”
However, doctors arriving from Ukraine to examine her first hand were
not allowed to see her. Russia’s
nastiness has no bounds.
Democratic nations have
agreed long ago that her situation is politically motivated. They have called on Russia to free her. Last week US President Barack Obama spoke on
the telephone with his Russian counterpart stressing that her
freedom is part of ”the Minsk commitment to release all unlawfully detained
persons.”
Yet Russia’s boss ha not
yielded: Savchenko’s trial must not be
politisized, President Putin has retorted.
Time is running out. In the letter, the group asks Trudeau to add his voice to this dreadful matter: telephone Putin and ask
him to release Savchenko.
He should release her, the
letter warns, for “his own sake as much as for hers. Putin is keen to improve relations with
Canada, and globally, after the terror he’s sewing in Ukraine and Syria.” He also wants economic sanctions lifted but
the EU and others are keeping them in place until Russia meets the Minsk agreements. Therefore, to remove them or prevent them
from increasing, as some are threatening to do, he must show at least a little
good will. Releasing Nadiya could be a
start.
Canada has a global
reputation for promoting human rights. In
the last two years while Ukraine was set on fire by Russia’s terror, the
Conservative Prime Minister Stephen Harper lived up to this ideal. The Liberal government of Trudeau is holding firm. It would
be a feather in Canada’s hat were he able to convince Putin to do
the right thing and release Naidya, a fellow parliamentarian and political
prisoner fighting for justice and her life.
Canada stood firm and fought
hard for the freedom of another political prisoner and fellow parliamentarian; Myanmar’s
de facto President Aung San Suu Kyi. Now it’s time for Canada to give its best for Nadiya.
Oksana Bashuk Hepburn, a former policy adviser for the
Government of Canada writes on Canada-Ukraine relations.
