MOSCOW, June 18. /TASS/. Ukrainian Ombudsperson Lyudmila Denisova’s unsuccessful attempt to visit two Ukrainians convicted in Russia - Nikolai Karpyuk and Oleg Sentsov - does not indicate the failure of an agreement reached by Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Ukrainian counterpart Pyotr Poroshenko, Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.
When asked if Denisova’s unsuccessful attempt proved that Russia was to blame for the agreement’s failure, Peskov said that he "would not put the question that way." "I cannot clarify the reasons why they couldn’t meet, it is not in our purview. Russian Ombudsperson Tatyana Moskalkova and her Ukrainian counterpart Denisova are working together, they have the full information as to with whom it is possible to meet," Peskov pointed out.
In reply to a question as to whether Moscow and Kiev had made any progress concerning the exchange of detainees, the Russian presidential spokesman said that "it is too early to speak about that." "Work is underway to implement the agreement that Putin and Poroshenko reached during their recent telephone talk. It will only be possible to speak about anything when some results of this work become clear," Peskov noted.
Agreements on visiting convicts
Ukrainian Parliament’s Human Rights Ombudsperson Lyudmila Denisova said that she intended to meet with her Russian counterpart Tatyana Moskalkova on Monday, June 18. Moskalkova said earlier that the parties were to discuss issues related to visiting Russian and Ukrainian convicts, as well as agree on a further action plan.
On June 16, the Russian and Ukrainian ombudspersons planned to jointly visit Dmitry Shtyblikov, convicted for plotting a subversive attack, who is serving out his sentence in the Siberian city of Omsk, and also develop a road map for each other’s visits to prisoners in Russian and Ukraine. It was also planned that on June 18 Moskalkova would go to the Ukrainian city of Kherson to visit Chief Editor of the RIA Novosti news agency Kirill Vyshinsky, charged with high treason, while after June 22, Denisova was planned to meet with Ukrainian film director Oleg Sentsov convicted in Russia for terrorism and serving out his sentence in the city of Salekhard.
However, contrary to those agreements, the Ukrainian ombudsperson went to Salekhard on her own on June 15 and demanded a meeting with Sentsov. After her demand was turned down, Denisova refused to meet with her Russian counterpart in Omsk and said she was "not ready to cooperate like that." Later she said that she had also failed to meet with Nikolai Karpyuk in the Vladimir Central Prison.
In early June, the Russian and Ukrainian presidents held a telephone conversation, discussing the exchange of detainees. In particular, "Putin emphasized the need to immediately release Russian journalists arrested in Ukraine," the Kremlin said. Besides, the two presidents agreed that the two countries’ human rights ombudspersons would visit Ukrainian citizens convicted in Russia and Russian citizens convicted in Ukraine.