Russian authorities released Ruslan Akhmetshin, a former associate of jailed Russian opposition politician Aleksei Navalny, from a penal colony in the northwestern Arkhangelsk region on December 15 at the end of a 30-month prison term on a charge of rehabilitation of Nazism. The charge stemmed from an online post about the 1939 nonaggression agreement, known as the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, between the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany that divided Poland between and helped spark World War II. Memorial Human Rights Center has recognized Akhmetshin as a political prisoner. To read the original story by RFE/RL's Russian Service, click here.
Former Navalny Associate Freed After 30-Month Prison Term Over Post On 1939 Soviet-Nazi Pact
Memorial Human Rights Center has recognized Ruslan Akhmetshin as a political prisoner.