He’s only been free for a few days, but Ukrainian filmmaker and writer Oleg Sentsov already says he will continue to advocate for the dozens of Ukrainians imprisoned in Russia on political charges, as wells as for Russian citizens jailed for fighting against President Vladimir Putin’s regime.
“They are our real brothers, and they are also prisoners of the Kremlin,” he said.
Sentsov’s words may sound defiant. In reality, they were more matter-of-fact.
On Sept. 10, he and his former co-defendant in a Russian terrorism case, activist Oleksandr Kolchenko, gave their first press conference in Kyiv after being released in a prisoner swap.
The two men spoke calmly and at length about their time in prison, being released, their gratitude to those who supported them, and their future plans — which, admittedly, remain blurry. They were freed just over three days ago.
Sentsov, 43, said his return to Ukraine “was one of those rare days worth living for,” and that he is now planning to “do the best things in life: make films and live.”
He added that the question of him going into politics is open.
“I am not a public person but it happened so that life made me one. I feel a responsibility to the people and the country.”
Kolchenko, 29, said wants to rest and adapt first and then plans to continue his studies at the Tavrida National University, which moved from Simferopol to Kyiv after Russia had occupied and annexed Crimea.
Arrest and conviction
Crimeans Sentsov and Kolchenko — along with two other men, Olexiy Chyrniy and Gennadiy Afanasyev — participated in public protests against Russia’s armed occupation of the peninsula in spring 2014.
In May 2014, they were arrested and accused of arson attacks on two offices in Simferopol, including one belonging to the ruling United Russia political party, and plotting to bomb the Soviet memorial to World War II and a statue of Bolshevik leader Vladimir Lenin.
Kolchenko, who admitted he was present when the United Russia office was set on fire, said, “At that time, there were no other options left for peaceful campaigns. You protested, and people with guns pointed them at you.”
Falsely labeled by Russian security forces as members of Right Sector, a Ukrainian nationalist organization, the four were also accused of plotting more terrorist attacks on critical infrastructure in Yalta, Simferopol, and Sevastopol.
“There were talks about explosions which the prosecutors singled out, then forced (testimony) out of Chyrniy and Afanasyev, and focused on it,” Sentsov said. “The case was fabricated. The testimony changed every month, and soon I became the organizer.”
In 2015, a Russian court in Rostov-on-Don sentenced Sentsov and Kolchenko to 20 and 10 years in prison respectively. Chyrnyi and Afanasyev had been convicted earlier to seven years. However, their testimonies given under torture played a crucial role in the case against Sentsov and Kolchenko. Afanasyev was eventually pardoned by Putin, and Chyrnyi is still serving time in a Russian prison.
“Anyone who engaged in protests could be in my place. I was careless because I thought I wouldn’t be of interest for the (Russian) special services,” said Kolchenko.
Sentsov echoes his sentiment: “I also had a feeling that nothing would happen to me.”
The international community condemned Sentsov and Kolchenko’s controversial trial and lengthy sentences on disputed terrorism charges. Sentsov, in particular, became a symbol of Ukraine’s war against Russia.
Campaigns for his release, emblazoned with the hashtag #FreeSentsov, took place across the world, and Ukrainian and international media closely followed his transfers from prison to prison and the condition of his health.
While Sentsov served his time in a penal colony in Siberia, he was awarded the 2017 PEN/ Barbey Freedom to Write award and the 2018 Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought.
Prison time
Thanks to the high-profile nature of their case and international attention, Sentsov and Kolchenko say they were not mistreated in Russian custody.
“To avoid problems, prison staff tried to treat us correctly and in accordance with the rules,” said Kolchenko, who served his time in Chelyabinsk Oblast, an industrial region in the Ural Mountains.
Sentsov agrees: “I was not physically abused but psychological pressure was applied. Prison administrations tried to isolate me from information.”
Days passed slowly in prison, but Sentsov says he made use of his time.
“I mostly read and wrote in prison, although each prison had different regulations. Sometimes there was television. I replied to letters. Many people wrote to me, and I tried to reply,” he said. “I brought back with me 22 kilograms of letters, books, and notebooks. Fifteen notebooks of finished scripts, collections of stories. One script will go into production soon, two books will go into print.”
He also kept a diary of the 145-day hunger strike he carried out last year demanding the release of 64 Ukrainian political prisoners.
“I wrote in it every day, not knowing what would happen to me and how long I would last.”
The filmmaker revealed that he had planned to go on another hunger strike in May.
On Russia and Crimea
Then, in late May, he learned that a prisoner exchange might be on the horizon. President Volodymyr Zelensky had taken office. Soon, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe voted in favor of granting Russia it voting rights, which had been stripped after the country occupied and annexed Crimea in 2014.
Sentsov believes these two factors contributed to making the large-scale prisoner swap possible. Finally, on Sept. 7, Russia and Ukraine exchanged a total of 70 people, 35 from each side.
The exchange was a major political victory for Zelensky. However, Sentsov also thanked the previous administration of President Petro Poroshenko for not making concessions to Putin.
“The work on the prisoner swap was ongoing all the time. The situation was completely different back then,” he said.
As for his homeland, Crimea, Sentsov believes the peninsula will be returned to Ukraine, but not because Putin cedes it.
“Change of power in Russia will happen sooner or later. Dragons also die,” he said. “I hope to live to see that moment.”
