Poll: 21% of Russians support exchange of political prisoners with Ukraine

This is evidenced by results of the poll conducted by the Russian Levada Center.

As noted, 63% of respondents for the first time heard about the hunger strike of Ukrainian film director Oleg Sentsov. Only 6% of respondents “know this well”, 31% - "heard something about it".

21% of Russians fully support the exchange of political prisoners between Ukraine and Russia, 37% - "rather support", 10% - “absolutely do not support”, 15% - "do not support",18% of respondents were undecided.

The poll was conducted on June 22-26, 2018. A method of personal interviews was used to poll 1,600 respondents living in 136 localities in 52 regions across the Russian Federation.

Ukrainian film director Oleg Sentsov, who had been illegally convicted in Russia on trumped-up charges of terrorist activities, announced an indefinite hunger strike on May 14 demanding to release all Ukrainian political prisoners held in Russia.

As reported, about 70 Ukrainian political prisoners are held in Russia and in the territory of the occupied Crimea, including Ukrinform correspondent Roman Sushchenko, who was sentenced to 12 years in prison on trumped-up espionage charges.

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