Will PACE manage to save Savchenko?

A winter session of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, which will last till January 30, has opened in Strasburg. One of the questions that has been considered is the case of the Ukrainian pilot Nadia Savchenko, who was seized in Donbas in summer and illegally brought to the RF. On December 13 the Ukrainian started a hunger strike and has been on it for 45 days.

Now, in the status of Ukrainian MP and member of the Ukrainian delegation in PACE, Savchenko has received international immunity. According to this, Russia must lift the restrictions for the MP’s trip to the Assembly. PACE President Anne Brasseur has stated about this as well, “We have told our Russian colleagues that they must release Savchenko, if they are going to act according to our rules (Council of Europe).”

However, the Russian side is ignoring the statements of both international organization, and world community, saying that Savchenko will be released only in case she is proved innocent. The Speaker of RF State Duma Sergey Naryshkin stated, “Savchenko cannot be present at the session because she is in prison in the RF. The regulations of the Council of Europe envisage that if a member of one of the delegations is imprisoned, the government of the country where this person is staying should ask for depriving him of immunity.”

“There is sufficient ground to release Nadia – PACE has recognized her immunity,” MP from Batkivshchyna Ihor Lutsenko told The Day. “Release of the Ukrainian prisoner is possible, but Russia can take a voluntaristic stand and this will turn into another wind of opposition between the EU and Moscow. If Savchenko has immunity, Russia must ask for permission to imprison her, not vice versa, because this is illegal practice. If the Kremlin doesn’t release Nadia, this will be an expression of disrespect to the European institution.”