Footage has been posted to the Internet proving that Oleksandr Yefremov, the leader of the former Regions Party parliamentary faction and an ally of former Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych, participated in a pro-Russia rally outside the Luhansk regional council building in March 2014.
At that rally, Yefremov addressed the public on the square prior to a regional council session, when local council members voted to hold an illegal referendum on Luhansk region`s seceding from Ukraine, and ”reserving the right to request assistance from the brotherly people of the Russian Federation.”
The Regions Party faction`s leader said then, ”that the appointment of a new [Ukrainian] leadership [after Euromaidan events] does not correspond to either the Constitution or the laws of Ukraine.”
The rally was also attended by Luhansk Mayor Serhiy Kravchenko and his deputies Zaza Zukhbaya and Oleksandr Tkachenko. Also in attendance were head of Luhansk regional administration Volodymyr Prystiuk and notorious local council member from the Regions Party Arsen Klinchayev. Other officials at the rally included director of Luhansk Cable TV Channel LKT Herman Kudinov, Chairman of Luhansk regional council Valeriy Holenko, and MPs Serhiy Dunayev and Serhiy Horokhov.
As UNIAN reported earlier, Yefremov was detained at Boryspi Airport on July 30 when, according to the Prosecutor General`s Office, he was attempting to leave for Vienna, Austria. Chief Prosecutor Yuriy Lutsenko said that Yefremov is suspected of taking deliberate actions to redraw the borders of Ukraine, of involvement in the creation of the ”LPR” terrorist organization and misappropriation of property from the Luhanskvuhillia coal company.
On August 1, 2016, Kyiv`s Pechersky district court ruled that Yefremov should be held in remand for two months.
