"I spent two years in prison for a song about Putin. Oleg Sentsov never sang a song, but he received a 20-year sentence from the court. Oleg Sentsov is a Ukrainian film director, whom the [Russian] government has accused of terrorism for allegedly attempting to detonate a Lenin's monument in the Crimea. Oleg is 40 years old and has two children left without a father.
20 years in prison in Russia means death! It is obvious that Sentsov did not detonate the monument, his 'fault' is simply to be a Crimean citizen who openly denounced the situation of the annexation. I am convinced that the release of Sentsov is a common cause. This artist should be free. And as I said on the occasion of the European Film Awards: A united community can make a difference. That's why I ask you to stand up and defend Oleg."
- Maria Alyokhina (Pussy Riot), on the occasion of the 29th European Film Awards in Wroclaw, Poland on 10 December 2016.
On 2 December 2016, Russian cultural figures urged President Vladimir Putin to protect the creative freedom and freedom of expression of artists. In reply, Mr. Putin reminded that the artists had to be careful and not "to exceed the limits," that is, not to offend religious feelings. He then referred to the 2015 attack on Charlie Hebdo as an example of the danger of offending religious feelings. But he also added that "there is a very narrow line between dangerous buffoonery and freedom of expression." Sokurov, who won the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival in 2011 for his film Faust, reacted sharply: "Who will then protect the atheists?" He addressed Putin and demanded the release of Oleg Sentsov:"He has to compete with me at film festivals, not to sit in our Arctic prison," said Sokurov. "It's a shame, it's sad."
Read more: The Sentsov-Kolchenko case: what you need to know
The so-called "trial" was denounced by Human Rights Watch as "stalinist" because Oleg and his co-accused Oleksandr Kolchenko were kidnapped in Crimea a few weeks after its annexation by Moscow and were imprisoned in Russia. In order to be able to judge them, the Russian authorities have forced them to uptake the Russian nationality, while neither of them never asked for it and continuously asserted their Ukrainian nationality. "I'm not a serf to be transferred with the land," shouted Sentsov at the end of his trial, feeling utterly outraged.
Signatures are being collected on the site scam.fr
The #LetMyPeopleGo campaign advocates for all Ukrainians imprisoned in Russia and occupied Crimea on political motives. Its aim is to release all the prisoners from the #LetMyPeopleGo list and controls observance of fundamental human rights, among which are freedom from torture, the right to a lawyer, the right to medical care and so on. Currently the campaign advocates for the fate of 13 prisoners in Russia and 8 prisoners in occupied Crimea.The campaign was started by Euromaidan SOS and is supported by a number of organizations in Ukraine and abroad: Centre for Civil Liberties, the Kharkiv Human Rights Group, People in Need, the “Open Dialogue” Foundation, Euromaidan Press, Euromaidan-Warsaw, the Ukrainian Helsinki Human Rights Union, and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine and Commissioner for Human Rights. Follow the campaign in social media: Facebook (English, Ukrainian), Twitter (English, Ukrainian), visit the site letmypeoplego.org.ua.
