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Sergei Filimonov is a former athlete and football hooligan. On social networks, he calls himself “the son of Perun.” Being a pagan neo-Nazi, he fought in the Donbass as part of the Azov volunteer battalion, demonstratively burned Orthodox icons, and posted photos of these actions on social networks. Filimonov also took part in attacks on elderly people who went out on May 9 with St. George’s ribbons to celebrate events. He now “sees himself as part of civil society and fights corruption,” DW notes.
Oleg Sentsov says that he is interested in filming pictures of political and historical content. “But about the present – about the Maidan, about the Crimea, about the prison, about the war – it is very difficult for me to shoot, because for me it is a very painful topic, which is difficult for me to talk about, not just what to shoot,” the director added. “Perhaps, when this is over, and we return Crimea, and the war ends with our victory, I will be able to shoot with a colder mind, with a cold heart.”
The Sentsov Case
In August 2015, the North Caucasian District Military Court in Rostov-on-Don found Oleg Sentsov guilty of organizing a terrorist community and sentenced him to 20 years in a maximum security colony. In the same case, activist Alexander Kolchenko was convicted, who was given 10 years.
Sentsov and Kolchenko were accused of setting fire to the offices of the Russian Community of Crimea and the United Russia office in Simferopol in the spring of 2014, shortly after the annexation of Crimea. In addition, Sentsov and other suspects were allegedly preparing to blow up a monument to Lenin, the investigation claimed.
Sentsov did not hide his dislike of the Russian authorities, but asserted that he had not committed any crimes.
On May 14, 2018, the director went on an indefinite hunger strike, demanding the release of all 64 Ukrainian political prisoners from Russian prisons. The hunger strike lasted 145 days and became unprecedented in the Russian prison system. Until Sentsov, the longest hunger strike was held by the Soviet political prisoner Anatoly Marchenko – 117 days. Then they began to force-feed him. 12 days after the end of the hunger strike, on December 8, 1986, Marchenko died of cardiac arrest.
Sentsov agreed to end the hunger strike due to the threat of force-feeding, which in fact can be equated with torture. On October 25, the Ukrainian director was awarded the Andrei Sakharov European Parliament Prize for Freedom of Thought for 2018.
September 7, 2019 Oleg Sentsov returned to Ukraine as part of the exchange between Kiev and Moscow of detainees under the “35 to 35” scheme. In a speech in the European Parliament at the presentation of the Sakharov Prize to him, Sentsov urged not to believe the President of the Russian Federation and “not to extend the hand of friendship to Putin over the heads of the Ukrainians.”
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