The Memorial Human Rights Center estimates that there are at least 102 political prisoners in Russia today. They’re convicted on various charges; all of them threadbare. But two cases are particularly odious, even in comparison with other fabricated cases. The prisoners in question, Aleksandr Kostenko and Andriy Kolomiyets, were convicted by Russian courts for taking part in opposition protests in their own country, Ukraine.
Getting creative with the law
Before protests erupted on Kyiv’s Maidan, Aleksandr Kostenko was a police officer in the Kyivsky District of Simferopol, Crimea’s administrative capital — then a Ukrainian-controlled territory. He resigned in 2013 over disagreements with his superiors, and from December 2013 to February 2014, participated in protests in Ukraine’s capital.
