Euroradio info: Mark Feigin - a lawyer and a politician, a former deputy of the Russian State Duma, vice-mayor of Samara. In 2012 he became one of the 20 most influential lawyers according to GQ magazine. Former defence lawyer of Pussy Riot.
Euroradio: Are you satisfied with the result of the "Savchenko case"?
Mark Feigin: Exchange was the only possible solution to free Nadiya from punishment, as serving sentence at home under the Convention "On Extradition of Convicts" or a pardon was the only way to save her from a Russian prison. This is very important. Some talk like perfectionists, "How is that possible: pardon by third parties - the victims' relatives. Putin came up with some scheme for self-benefit". I think when it comes to political affairs in the country with no independent judiciary and an independent judicial system, any attempt to save the accused for political reasons may appear in any legally-procedural form. After all, the reasoning of "Let's fight until the end, to the defendant's last drop of blood" seem to me absurd and unfair, and also untrue. The main thing is the result. Not "justify or not justify" or in some other way, using procedural terminology, succeed in the case, but save. In the political affairs, the issue is not "won - lost" - this is not the English Court, but saved or not. So, Nadiya Savchenko was saved, unlike Karpyuk who was tortured, Sentsov who was tortured: FSB guys pulled a sack on his head in Crimea. Unlike many others, who got in much more serious situation than Nadiya, thanks only to the political aspect and publicity of the case. That's why I think this result is satisfactory, since we rescued her.
Euroradio: How did you know that the exchange would actually happen?
Mark Feigin: Details were not known until the last moment -- I did not know them. And it is natural: those were the conditions of the special operation. I think the first persons agreed, and one of the conditions was that all remained quiet. I was told that all would happen on Wednesday by the people from Kyiv on the day before the exchange. To be honest, I did not believe until the last, because I was skeptical about the possibility of such an option due to the behavior of the Russian authorities. while the Ukrainian president commented on all that he did in that case, the Russian authorities remained silent, leaving for themselves an option to cancel the agreement at any time, because they had been reached non-publicly.
Euroradio: How did Savchenko learn about the exchange?
Mark Feigin: I just came to Kyiv, I'll meet with her, and she will tell me the details of how it was presented by the prison. After all, we saw her last week when nothing was known, and none of her attorneys could get to her this week. But I think that in prison she was told about the exchange on the very day, did not warn her in advance.