Russia recognizes Ukrainian citizenship of Sentsov, Kolchenko

Russia has officially recognized that political prisoners Oleg Sentsov and Oleksandr Kolchenko are the citizens of Ukraine.

This is stated in the report of the Russian Ombudsperson.

“As a result of the actions taken by the Ombudsperson [of the Russian Federation] following the complaints of Sentsov and Kolchenko, the legal uncertainty about their nationality was eliminated and their Ukrainian citizenship was recognized,” reads the document.

Oleg Sentsov, Oleksandr Kolchenko, Gennady Afanasyev and Oleksiy Chirniy were detained on charges of planning a terrorist attack in the occupied Crimea in May 2014. They were tortured and forced to testify against themselves. Afanasyev and Chirniy pleaded bargain and were sentenced to seven years in prison. In August last year, Sentsov was sentenced to 20 years and Kolchenko was sentenced to 10 years in prison. The Memorial Russian human rights center considers them to be the political prisoners, and the Amnesty International – the prisoners of conscience.