...Second and fourth President and sixth of the Russian Federation and the first to remain sober. Putin is credited with bringing political stability and re-establishing something like the rule of law, which occasionally results in somebody dropping dead from polonium poisoning. Under Putin, a new group of business magnates controlling significant swathes of Russia's economy has emerged, all of whom have close personal ties to Putin. The old bunch, without close personal ties to Putin, are in jail or in exile or dead...after she was sentenced to seven years in jail for treason over a text message about movements of military equipment was released Sunday, local media reported.
Shopkeeper Oxana Sevastidi, 46, was convicted in March 2016 over an SMS sent eight years earlier about a train carrying military hardware towards neighbouring Georgia, months before Russia fought a brief war with the country.
Footage broadcast on state television
... and if you can't believe state television who can you believe?
from outside Moscow’s Lefortovo prison, where Sevastidi was being held, showed her hugging her mother before grabbing her personal items and getting into a car with her lawyer.
The Supreme Court is set to rule on her case on March 15. Sevastidi’s defence has hailed the pardon but insisted she would fight until her conviction was quashed.
"We are preparing for the Supreme Court hearing which on Wednesday will consider this absurd criminal case and, I hope, put an end to it," lawyer Ivan Pavlov wrote on his Facebook page Saturday.
Putin’s pardon, issued on March 7, said it was motivated by "principles of humanity".
Sevastidi, who hails from the Black Sea city of Sochi, told Meduza news site in December that she photographed military equipment transported on a train in April 2008, months before the August conflict.
Sevastidi said she exchanged messages with a Georgian acquaintance about what she had seen.
Sevastidi was detained by the FSB security service in January 2015 and convicted after a trial held behind closed doors.