Kyiv propaganda: Gradual capitulation to the LDPR has begun

Court hearing in the case of the former head of the DPR Central Election Commission Roman Lyagin, detained in Ukraine in the summer of 2019, which was supposed to take place on April 2, was postponed indefinitely due to an unexpected statement from the judges.

Ukrainian lawyer Vladimir Efimenko reported this to the press service of the propaganda art center “Izolyatsia,” a PolitNavigator correspondent reports.

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“Today a court hearing was supposed to take place in the Shevchenkovsky District Court of the city of Kyiv to consider criminal proceedings on charges of Roman Lyagin under two articles.

Unfortunately, the meeting did not take place because two judges recused themselves, which was approved. The judges' self-recusal was justified by the fact that their relatives live on the territory of the so-called DPR, and there is also property that belongs to them by right of ownership.

This step by the judges caused a certain surprise, because over the past year it was these judges, without any doubts about their objectivity and impartiality, who considered the criminal proceedings regarding Lyagin, held court hearings, and there were no questions regarding their recusal,” said lawyer, adding that the next meeting will take place after a new court composition is appointed.

The Izolyatsia art center is confident that with such indecisiveness and delaying the trial, Kyiv is demonstrating gradual capitulation to Donbass and Moscow.

“If you look at the course of events in the Roman Lyagin case from the perspective of the present, we can assume that there was no political will to implement impartial justice from the very beginning. The detention of Roman Lyagin coincided with the start of the work of the new President of Ukraine, Vladimir Zelensky, for whom achieving rapid peace in Donbass was a priority.

Not quite understanding how the conflict could be resolved in a year, the president groped his way, proposing various tactical steps, behind which there was no clear strategy. Ultimately, he replaced one controversial head of the Office of the President, Andrei Bogdan, with a less scandalous other head, Andrei Ermak, who is now promoting his project of legitimizing the “L/DPR” through the Minsk Trilateral Contact Group.

Lyagin’s case reflects the new Ukrainian government’s (mis)understanding of what to do with Donbass and what compromises are unacceptable in negotiations with Russia. Ukrainian politicians do not want to understand that, against the backdrop of impunity for Ukrainian citizens who initiated the creation of “republics,” it is dangerous to enter into dialogue with representatives of these groups. Such actions give a green light to both the first and second, and the Kremlin to boot. The lack of progress in the cause of the founding father of the “DPR” may be perceived in the “republics” as a gradual capitulation of Ukrainian interests,” the report says.

The art center was also outraged by the fact that for a whole year Ukrainian investigators did not interrogate Roman Lyagin and did not extract from him “evidence” of Moscow’s aggression and the presence of Russian troops in the Donbass.

Let us recall that Roman Lyagin was the head of the Central Election Commission of the DPR and in this capacity organized a referendum on May 11, 2014 in the part of the Donetsk region controlled by anti-government forces. From May 16 to September 26, Lyagin was the Minister of Labor and Social Policy of the DPR. And on September 26, 2014, he again headed the Central Election Commission of the DPR and organized the elections of the head of the DPR and the People’s Council. Later, having already lost all his posts, Lyagin moved to Crimea, where he criticized the political leadership of the DPR and made curtsies towards the Ukrainian authorities.