What did Russia's actions show by 28 March 2019?
A look back at two reports from the days before 28 March 2019, one involving a Ukrainian prisoner and one involving Russian military flights to Venezuela.
What was the picture by 28 March 2019, as reports from the preceding week were taken together? Two items stood out, and both involved Russia.
On 22 March 2019, it was reported that Pavlo Hryb, a Ukrainian political prisoner, had been sentenced in Russia to six years in prison. For a Ukrainian readership, the case was another example of a Ukrainian citizen held by Russia.
Two days later, on 24 March 2019, two Russian military aircraft, an Ilyushin Il-62 and an Antonov An-124, landed at Simón Bolívar International Airport near Caracas, Venezuela. They carried a senior Defence Ministry official, Vasily Tonkoshkurov, a large amount of equipment and about 100 troops. Russia had held joint military exercises on Venezuelan soil three months earlier. It also condemned other countries for backing opposition leader Juan Guaidó against embattled President Nicolás Maduro.
The two reports concerned different places and different matters. Together they described a Russia that was imprisoning a Ukrainian citizen while sending troops and equipment to a government under pressure thousands of kilometres away.
