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Kremlin denies receiving Council of Europe chief’s request to pardon Ukrainian filmmaker

Nevertheless, the Kremlin spokesman confirmed that the issue of swaps was mentioned during a telephone talk between Vladimir Putin and Pyotr Poroshenko

Oleg Sentsov Valery Matytsin/TASS

Oleg Sentsov

© Valery Matytsin/TASS

MOSCOW, June 22. /TASS/. Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Friday the Kremlin had not received any request from Council of Europe Secretary General Thorbjorn Jagland for pardoning jailed Ukrainian filmmaker Oleg Sentsov.

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Kremlin has no information about Sentsov’s health issues — spokesman

"I have no information that there was such a request," Peskov said, replying to a question about whether the Kremlin was ready to consider such a request.

The complexities with swapping Sentsov are not related to the fact that he does not recognize himself as a citizen of Russia, the Kremlin spokesman said.

"He was convicted on a very serious count, that is the point," Peskov said.

"It’s about who he is de jure, no matter whom he recognizes himself or whom he does not recognize himself to be," the Russian presidential spokesman said.

Nevertheless, the Kremlin spokesman confirmed that the issue of swaps was mentioned during a telephone talk between Russian and Ukrainian Presidents Vladimir Putin and Pyotr Poroshenko.

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Filmmaker Sentsov must initiate pardon process himself, Kremlin says

"The issue of swaps was touched upon in the course of a telephone talk between Putin and Poroshenko and it is actually in line with this discussion at the level of the heads of state that the ombudspersons from both countries are working," Peskov said.

Sentsov case

In late August 2015, Ukrainian filmmaker Oleg Sentsov, best known for his 2011 film Gamer, was found guilty of terrorism in Russia. The North Caucasus District Military Court sentenced him to 20 years behind bars on charges of setting up a terrorist cell in Crimea and plotting terror attacks. In the spring of 2014, the group’s members carried out two terror attacks in Simferopol: they set on fire the offices of Crimea’s Russian Community public organization and a regional office of the United Russia party.

Ombudspersons’ activities

On June 9, Putin and Poroshenko in a telephone call made an agreement that the two countries’ human rights ombudspersons would visit Russian convicts in Ukraine and Ukrainian convicts in Russia. On June 18, the ombudspersons held a meeting in Moscow, discussing a memorandum on visiting convicts.

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