Moscow, Nov 23 (CTK special correspondent) – Czech President Milos Zeman expressed support for the release of ill Ukrainian religious scholar Igor Kozlovsky, whom pro-Russian rebels keep in detention in Donbass, during his talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday, he said in Moscow on Thursday.
Zeman expressed outrage at the absence of any reaction to his previous letter asking for Kozlovsky’s release addressed to Alexander Zakharchenko, leader of the self-proclaimed Donetsk Republic, he told Czech journalists.
He said Kozlovsky might be released within an exchange of prisoners of war.
Kozlovsky, 62, was arrested in Donetsk in January 2016, accused of espionage and illegal arms possession and sentenced to 2.5 years in prison. From the beginning of the pro-Russian rebellion, Kozlovsky protested against the violence.
Zeman said he did not talk with Putin about the forthcoming Czech and Russia presidential elections. In the Czech Republic the election will be held in January, in Russia in March.
On Monday, Zeman arrived in Sochi where he had talks with Putin on Tuesday. On Wednesday, he met Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev and former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev, the father of Perestroika, in Moscow. He flew to Yekaterinburg on Thursday.
