MOSCOW, March 18. /TASS/. The Kremlin doesn’t think the so-called Savchenko list really exists, Russian president’s press secretary Dmitry Peskov said on Friday.
"There is no Savchenko list, let us take it for granted," he told journalists.
Hence, in his words, any speculations on that matter are out of place. "There is no ground for comment on that matter," the Kremlin spokesman added.
The press service of the Ukrainian president said on Thursday, President Petro Poroshenko had referred his initiative to impose sanctions against persons who have any relation to the criminal case against former Ukrainian woman pilot Nadezhda Savchenko to President of the European Parliament Martin Schulz.
Meanwhile, Russia’s Permanent Representative to the Eyuropean Union, Vladimir Chizhov said that either the EU’s executive bodies nor executive bodies of its member countries have taken any practical steps to enforce the so-called Savchenko list.
"There have been some initiatives by a group of European Parliament members, and the latest news I heard, by a group of members of a national parliament, namely Estonian, to introduce the additional list under the pretense of the legal action (against former Ukrainian pilot Nadezhda) Savchenko," the diplomat said. "So far, the executive bodies of the EU or its member-countries have taken no practical steps in this direction."
Nadezhda Savchenko is currently under trial in the city of Donetsk in Russia’s southern Rostov region. She is charged under three articles of the Russian Criminal Code "murder", "attempted murder" and "illegal border crossing".
The prosecution argues that on June 17, 2014 Savchenko was in the area controlled by the para-military battalion Aidar near the Metallist community, the Lugansk Region, from where she adjusted artillery fire against a roadblock held by militias of the self-proclaimed Lugansk People’s Republic and a group of civilians present there, including three Russian television journalists. The explosion of a mortar shell killed two of them - Igor Kornelyuk and Anton Voloshin.
The trial against Savchenko began on September 22, 2015. The court is to read out a verdict on March 21-22. The prosecutor wants her to be sentenced to 23 years in prison and a fine of 100,000 rubles (1,400 U.S. dollars).