The Russian courts’ conviction of foreigners on spurious national security grounds demonstrates yet again the farcical state of the rule of law in Russia today, according to the European Parliament.

In a resolution and debate on the cases of Eston Kohver, an Estonian security official, and Ukrainian activists Oleg Sentsov and Alexander Kolchenko, the Parliament lamented the intensifying politicisation of the legal system in Russia and called for the prisoners’ immediate release.

Mikhail Khodorkovsky, the founder of the Open Russia movement, is providing financial assistance to Sentsov and Kolchenko via a joint project with anti-corruption campaigner Alexei Navalny to assist political detainees.

The beneficiaries of the project, which so far number 22, are chosen by an independent panel.

Meeting in Strasbourg this week, MEPs agreed a hard-hitting text lamenting the Russian government’s disregard for the rule of law and its unwillingness to fully implement the Minsk agreement brokered to end the conflict in eastern Ukraine.

With regard to Sentsov and Kolchenko, the resolution “strongly condemns [their] illegal sentencing and imprisonment” and “calls on the Russian Federation to release them immediately and guarantee their safe return to Ukraine.

Furthermore, the resolution “demands that the Russian authorities immediately investigate, in an impartial and effective manner, the allegations of torture made by defendants and witnesses in the case, which were rejected by the prosecutor during the trial”, and the text “calls for this investigation also to be opened to international observers”.

MEPs also note that “several trials and judicial proceedings over the last few years, including in the Navalny, Magnitsky and Khodorkovsky cases, have cast doubt on the independence and impartiality of the judicial institutions of the Russian Federation”.

The text, drafted by the main political groups in the Parliament, states that “in the Russian Federation law and justice are being used as political instruments in breach of international law and standards”.

The resolution highlighted the plight of Mr Kohver and the Ukrainian military pilot and parliamentarian Nadiya Savchenko, identifying them as “illegally detained”.

MEPs have also called upon EU leaders to “enable the EU to regain the initiative and to pursue a more clear-cut policy towards Russia”.

And the Kremlin’s crackdown on civil society came in for heavy criticism, with the resolution condemning “the government’s continued crackdown on dissidents by targeting independent NGOs through the so-called ‘foreign agents law’ and the persistent and multiform repression of activists, political opponents and critics of the regime.”

Video of the debate can be found here.

The text of the resolution can be found here.