According to Mark Feygin, one of the defense lawyers for the imprisoned Ukrainian air-force pilot and MP Nadiya Savchenko, she is supposed to become part of an agreement to end the war in the Donbas, which Russian President Vladimir Putin hopes to sign with US President Barack Obama.
Feygin explained his views in an interview with the Polish newspaper Rzeczpospolita on August 12, as reported by Espreso TV.
“He (Putin) is hoping to conclude a great deal with the West regarding the end of the Ukrainian conflict while Barack Obama is still in the White House. He knows that if Republicans or even Hillary Clinton win the presidential elections, this will become much more difficult,” he said.
According to Feygin, Obama wants to settle a maximum number of issues before he leaves the White House. “It is about his place in history. He has managed to do it with Iran, Cuba. His advisers — the same ones who once lobbied for a ‘reset’ with Putin — are once again pushing for an agreement with Russia,” he said.
Additionally, Feygin believes Putin wants to be the second Stalin.
“Putin wants a new Yalta. He wants to sit in a chair just as Stalin sat next to Churchill and Roosevelt and divided up the world. But he forgets that the post-war totalitarian Soviet Union was much stronger than today’s Russia. Today he does not have the same opportunities, the same ideological power,” he said.
Earlier, Feygin reported that he is preparing Savchenko to expect a conviction.
In his view, despite the fact that he and other lawyers will prove her innocence, the judges will give the maximum sentence — 25 years.
“We are preparing Nadiya for the likelihood of a guilty sentence , with 25 years in prison. And this will be in no way related to what happens in court. In court, we absolutely will prove her innocence, but the verdict will still be that she is guilty. This is because it is being decided not in the court but in the Kremlin,” Feygin said.
Feygin believes that only consistent and relentless pressure by the international community will bring about the release of Nadiya Savchenko, who is being accused by Russian authorities of involvement in the deaths of two Russian journalists and illegally crossing the Russian-Ukrainian border.
