Media: Separatists from the Donbas complain about Russia’s indifference towards their fate
The participants of hostilities in the Donbas have complained to the Civic Chamber of the Russian Federation about the indifference of Russian authorities to their fate, as reported in an article in the Russian newspaper, Kommersant, entitled, “Battalions ask for understanding.”
According to former separatists and Russian mercenaries, the General Prosecutor’s Office of the Russian Federation has extradited them from Russia at the request of their Ukrainian colleagues. Russian Courts deport them for violating immigration laws. Further, the authorities of the unrecognized Republics don’t defend the interests of this population at all.
The Chairwoman of the Union of Political Refugees and Prisoners of Ukraine, Larisa Shesler reminded that Russia signed the Convention on Legal Assistance in 1993. This Convention provides for the extradition of people accused of crimes in other former Soviet Republics.
According to this document, Ukraine initiates criminal proceedings on charges of separatism or under Articles of the Criminal Code such as property theft, and Russian Prosecutor’s Office works in tandem with the Ukrainian Prosecutor’s Office to extradite such people at Kyiv’s requests.
“We literally pull people out and put them on a train heading to Kyiv,” Shesler complained. In addition, it was difficult for separatists who fought against Ukraine to adapt to life in Russia.
It is almost impossible to obtain refugee status in Russia. And, now the Courts have begun to deny extensions for temporary asylum. According to Kommersant, 294,529 people have been granted temporary asylum status in Russia. Since early 2017, only one person obtained refugee status. The Civic Chamber of the Russian Federation promised to help but added that separatists’ expectations of Russia turned out to be high. Veterans were reminded of the fact that the economic crisis in the Russian Federation was triggered by the Ukrainian war.
“It is good that Ukrainian refugees and political emigrants finally begin to understand that Russia isn’t the place that they once imagined in pink and blue tones. It isn’t the USSR, Russia has its own problems that should be taken into consideration. Perhaps, if they had realized this sooner, there wouldn’t be such a terrible war. That is why they shouldn’t have excessive grievances against Russia and high expectations,” the Vice-President of the Center for the Modeling of Strategic Development, Grigory Trofimchuk, stated at the meeting.
Trofimchuk complained that the Civic Chamber of the Russian Federation itself often doesn’t have money to purchase paper due to the crisis and noted that the crisis was triggered by the Ukrainian war. The representatives of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, who deal with issues of refugees and asylum-seekers, attended the meeting at the Civic Chamber. They refused to deliver a separate report but assured activists that they are forced to act within existing legislation.