The whole world is running around with the Ukrainian Savchenko, but no one needs the Russian Masha Koleda
Moscow – Kyiv, March 6 (PolitNavigator, Mikhail Shtamm) – Novaya Gazeta publishes a letter from Ukrainian pilot Nadiya Savchenko, written from prison to Masha Koleda, a Russian activist arrested in Ukraine and held for five months in an SBU pretrial detention facility. The letter itself is uninteresting, but the author of the accompanying text draws attention to the contrasting fates of the two women. While "leading world powers fought for" Nadiya Savchenko, Masha turned out to be of no use to anyone in Russia – neither the embassy nor politicians helped her.
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The Ministry of Justice of Ukraine appealed to the Council of Europe with a request to recognize the Ukrainian soldier Nadezhda Savchenko as a hostage of Russia and demand her extradition, the newspaper recalls. The European Court of Human Rights has begun proceedings in the Savchenko case. The case was immediately given priority status. The President of the ECHR addressed inquiries about it to the Russian government.
“When I found out about you, Masha Koleda, you had been in the Kiev pre-trial detention center for the fifth month, and it was not clear what would happen next. Russia didn’t stand up for you,” writes a Novaya correspondent. “The consular advisers stopped by one day. You asked them to bring a hearing aid because you’ve had trouble hearing since childhood. They left, but never showed up again. It didn’t surprise you, you didn’t expect too much from them.”
“And this inexplicable love for your homeland, coupled with the realization that your country doesn’t care what happens to you, whether you live or die, struck me about you then, Masha,” continues the author of the article.
The newspaper further reports that without money and without belongings, Masha Koleda, released through a prisoner of war exchange, was taken illegally through the southeast to Rostov-on-Don at the end of September by some unknown friends. In all Ukrainian documents, the girl remained listed as having escaped and being on the criminal wanted list. And if she had been detained in Russia, they would have been sent for filtering - like after a concentration camp during the Great Patriotic War, to find out whether the Ukrainian special services recruited her or not.
Thank God, our border was not guarded by anyone, and Masha returned to her homeland without problems. And then she herself, of her own free will, left for Donetsk. What exactly she is doing there is not reported.
The whole world is raving about Ukrainian Savchenko, but Russian Masha Koleda is of no use to anyone.