Senators have been hungry for 100 days in a Russian prison. Has he changed him for a Russian soldier?

Ukrainian director Oleh Sencov is holding a protest hunger strike in a Russian criminal colony called the White Bear for a hundred days. According to the latest reports, he has grown considerably, he is weaker and has a too low hemoglobin level.

Doctors keep him alive with infusions. Moscow is the newest to hear – if hunger threatens his life, he will have to force him to eat nasilu.

"I have seen him, praiseworthy, alive," Russian journalist and human rights activist Zoja Svetova wrote in the social network. One of the few had the opportunity to visit the detained director directly in the penal colony.

"He smiled and smiled at me: I lie, he says quietly, he has to repeat me more than he said It's not easy – it gets tired quickly They all have thanks for support and help, Svetov said and said to Oleh's mother that she had a great son.

Vladimir Vladimirovich, gets angry

Ludmil Sencov had just asked for the release of his son. "You've been here for four years, children are waiting for him at home, please, Vladimir Vladimirovic, please," she wrote directly to President Vladimir Putin.

Last week, however, the presidential office rejected its request. Putin's spokesperson, Dmitry Peskov, denied the reasoning that Senkov had to write himself. But the imprisoned director refuses.

Lawyers point out for the time being that prisoners are legally not obliged to ask for mercy, but it is sufficient if they are requested by another person. They also refer to the precedent of the former fighter pilot Nadia Savchenko, who was detained in Russia in 2014 and later replaced by two Russian soldiers.

"When you hear from Russian officials that Sencov or someone else can not be reunited because they did not follow the rules for submitting a request for reconciliation, you should know that it is a lie." Previous Savchenko is valuable only because we know it works in a different way, "quoted the Russian lawyer of TV Hugo, Ilja Novikov, who represented Nadja Savchenko.

Would he change him for a soldier?

Meanwhile, the Russian prisoner Viktor Agayev, who has been convicted by the Ukrainians for 10 years, is offered for a certain period in Ukraine. His mother also asked the president – this time the Ukrainian president Petr Poroshenko – for mercy.

Agavev, who was arrested last year for the Ukrainian security forces of Donbass as a member of a diversion group, is not alone.

According to the Ukrainian ombudsman Ľudmila Denisová, seven other Russians have already turned to the Russian president with an official request for an exchange for Ukrainian political prisoners.

Even in July, Vice President of Verkhovna Rada Irina Geraščenko appointed a list of 23 Russians that Ukraine could immediately offer to exchange. Kiev is currently ready to replace 36 Russians for 23 Ukrainians, including Sencova.

Death would be a problem

Russian expert Marek Příhoda of the Institute of East European Studies of the Faculty of Philosophy of Charles University assumes that the Russian regime is trying to avoid the worst.

"But it can not be excluded because of Senc's critical state of health, and his possible death in the Russian prison would represent even more undesirable complications for the Kremlin on the international political scene," he says for Aktuality.sk.

For example, the death of the director would reinforce the voices that argue for the continuation or further strengthening of the sanctions against Russia.

What do the Russians think?

While Senkov is one of the most important subjects in Ukraine, and his fate is closely monitored in the European Union, it remains to be seen to what extent the Russians know his case.

According to Levada-Centr's sociological survey, 37 percent of Russians said in late July that they were well aware of the Senkov case – about 6 percent – or about 31 percent of them.

"Most regular Russians get information from the official media, especially the state television, which can not be expected to objectively inform the fate of Sencova," explains the incident. He also remembers that the event was largely overwhelmed by the euphoria surrounding the football world championships.

However, independent media and representatives of the Russian opposition are regularly warned about the hunger of the Ukrainian director, an example may be the request of the most prominent opposition leader Alexey Navales. With the request to release Sencova, he turned directly to Putin.

"As far as public attitudes are concerned, I find it interesting that the vast majority of respondents, 58 percent, support the exchange of political prisoners between the Russian Federation and Ukraine," concluded the accident.