The European Parliament on June 14 overwhelmingly passed a resolution calling on Russian authorities to release Ukrainian filmmaker Oleg Sentsov [19], and all the other "illegally detained Ukrainian citizens" in Russia and Russia-annexed Crimea "immediately and unconditionally." Sentsov has been on hunger strike in a Russian prison in the far-northern Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Region since May 14. He is demanding that Russia release 64 Ukrainian citizens he considers political prisoners. Sentsov was arrested in Crimea in 2014, after Russia seized the Ukrainian region. A Russian court in 2015 convicted him of planning to commit terrorist acts and sentenced him to 20 years in prison. He denies the accusations.
The resolution, backed by the five main political groups in the European Parliament, notes that currently "there are in total more than 70 Ukrainian political prisoners in Russia and in the occupied Crimea." It also demands the release of Oyub Titiyev [20], the Chechnya head of Russian rights group Memorial, who has been detained since January 2018, and urges the Russian authorities to cease the intimidation and harassment of Memorial staff. (RFE/RL [21])
Out of 627 Members of the European Parliament (MEPs), 485 voted for the resolution, 76 voted against, and 66 abstained. Tango Noir [22] website provides a break-down of the 76 MEPs who voted against the resolution. They are invariably either of the "far right" or the "far left." In the prior category are several MEPs from the French National Front (recently renamed the Naitonal Rally [23]), Germany's Alternative für Deutschland [24], the Greek Golden Dawn [25], Italy's Northern League [26] (recently rebranded as simply The League), the Netherlands' Party for Freedom [27], and Britain's UK Independence Party [28].
In the latter camp are the French Left Front [29], Germany's Die Linke [30], the Greek Syriza [31], Italy's The Other Europe [32], Portugal's Left Bloc [33], and Spain's Podemos [34].
Another ugly and despairingly stupid exponent of Red-Brown Politics [35].
Do you mind explaining to us what you are thinking, Left Front, Die Linke, Syriza, The Other Europe, Left Bloc, and Podemos?
No, really. We want to know.
