A Russian lawmaker says a Ukrainian court's November 18 decision to release a suspect in alleged plot to kill Russian President Vladimir Putin is politically motivated.
Frants Klintsevich, first deputy leader of the United Russia faction in the State Duma, said hours after the court's ruling that the decision of the court in the Black Sea port city of Odesa was "anti-Russian."
The court sentenced Adam Osmayev to time served -- about two years and nine months -- after convicting him of illegal explosives possession, damaging private property, and forgery.
But amid tension between Moscow and Kyiv over the conflict in eastern Ukraine, authorities dropped the attempted assassination charge against Osmayev last month.
Osmayev, an ethnic Chechen, was arrested in February 2012 after his associate, Kazakh citizen Ilya Pyanzin, was injured in the accidental explosion of a handmade bomb in Odesa. The blast killed a third man.