The Ukrainian Foreign Ministry has sais the verdict against former director of the Ukrainian Literature Library in Moscow Natalia Sharina is the evidence of the anti-Ukrainian paranoia of the Russian regime.
“The completion of a legal farce in Russia over director of the Russian state-owned institution Ukrainian Literature Library in Moscow Natalia Sharina and a four-year suspended sentence to her is an apparent evidence of anti-Ukrainian paranoia,” the Foreign Ministry said in a commentary released on June 6.
The Ukrainian Foreign Ministry noted that the library was functioning amid searches of its premises, seizure of books and equipment, blackmail and intimidation of its employees by Russian law enforcers, arrests and discrediting of its leadership.
“For many years Russian authorities have been demonstrating the whole arsenal of fight against everything associated with Ukraine, its language and culture,” the Foreign Ministry also said.
The ministry also said the words of respect and gratitude to Sharina and the library staff, who “have ensured the worthy work of the organization by their faithfulness to their cause and high professionalism in extremely difficult conditions.”
Sharina herself called the judgment political. Sharina’s defense said it planned to appeal the judgment.
On June 5, the Moscow Meshchansky District Court passed on Sharina a four-year suspended sentence on the count of extremism and embezzlement of the library’s resources.
