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Kremlin refuses to comment on terms of releasing Ukraine filmmaker Sentsov

Sentsov could not be released without a decision of the court, the Kremlin reminded

MOSCOW, December 6. /TASS./ Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Tuesday he could not speak about the terms for releasing Ukrainian filmmaker Oleg Sentsov jailed for terrorism in Russia.

"I could not (explain the conditions)," Peskov told reporters. "The president explained his viewpoint rather clearly," he stressed.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said on December 2 at the session of the Councils for Culture and Art and the Russian Language in St. Petersburg that Sentsov’s issue should be decided by the court. "As for his (Sentsov’s) art, he was convicted not for art, but for taking other functions, as investigative and court bodies say, and particularly in fact he devoted his life to terrorist activity," the president said. "Everyone has the right to have a position, but nobody condemned him for that," the Russian leader stressed.

Putin also said Sentsov could not be released without a decision of the court. "Yes, there are certain rules and norms which we can use. But certain conditions are needed for this," he added.

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