17 September 2019, Tuesday, 18:13 230

Karpiuk Says Traveled To Russia In March 2014 To Organize Meeting Between Putin And Yarosh

Editor: Daria Zubkova

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Former deputy head of the Right Sector political party Mykola Karpiuk, who was recently released by Russia as part of a prisoner exchange with Ukraine, has said that organization of a meeting between President of Russia Vladimir Putin and the Right Sector’s former leader/former parliamentarian Dmytro Yarosh was the reason for his trip to Russia in March 2014.

Karpiuk stated this at a press conference, Ukrainian News Agency reports.

“Honestly speaking, going to Russia was a very stupid thing to do,” he said.

According to him, his godfather told him about the possibility of organizing a meeting between Putin and the leadership of the Right Sector in March 2014.

The meeting was planned for the Russian president’s residence in Novo-Ogaryovo.

“We bought into the idea that it would be a preliminary meeting,” he said.

According to him, the leadership of the Right Sector held a meeting and decided to send Karpiuk to the meeting because he was the party’s deputy leader for political affairs.

“Yarosh knew about this (the trip to the Russian Federation),” he said.

However, according to him, neither Yarosh nor former head of the Security Service of Ukraine Valentyn Nalyvaichenko were involved in his arrest.

Karpiuk, his godfather, and their driver were detained upon entering Russia on March 17, 2014.

According to him, he was tortured with electric shocks in a Russian prison and then taken to Chechnya for trial.

Karpiuk said that the proposal for a possible meeting between Putin and Yarosh did not surprise the leadership of the Right Sector because the leader of the Right Sector had many meetings with foreign ambassadors during the Euromaidan protests.

In particular, according to Karpiuk, Yarosh held a meeting with the Israeli ambassador, which was organized by Member of Parliament Vadym Rabinovych.

"Rabinovych helped the Right Sector during the Maidan process," he said.

He expressed gratitude to Rabinovych for this help.

As Ukrainian News Agency earlier reported, Ukraine and Russia exchanged prisoners on September 7, with each side freeing 35 prisoners.

The prisoners released by Russia include Karpiuk and Stanyslav Klykh.

On October 26, 2016, the Russian Supreme Court upheld Karpiuk’s prison sentence of 22.5 years and Klykh’s prison sentence of 20 years for killing Russian military personnel in Chechnya during the period of 1994-1995.