PUTIN PARDONS MAN CONVICTED IN MURDER

President Vladimir Putin has pardoned one of the convicted organizers of the murder of journalist Anna Politkovskaya in return for his service in Ukraine, his lawyer said Tuesday, the latest in a series of such reprieves for high-profile criminals in Russia.

Sergei Khadzhikurbanov, a former law enforcement officer who was sentenced in 2014 to 20 years in prison over the killing of Politkovskaya in 2006, was pardoned in a decree issued by Putin, his lawyer, Alexei Mikhalchik, said in a phone interview.

Politkovskaya, who became one of Russia’s most acclaimed journalists as a result of her uncompromising reports of human rights abuses during the country’s wars in Chechnya that erupted in the 1990s, was shot dead in the elevator of her apartment building in central Moscow. Her murder caused shock waves in Russia and abroad, as it highlighted the growing dangers of reporting in the country that is critical of the Kremlin.

The news of Khadzhikurbanov’s pardon was first reported by Baza, a Russian news outlet, and RBC, a Russian business daily. Mikhalchik said he did not know when the decree had been signed.

Activists said this year that the Russian government had started a mass campaign to pardon convicts in return for fighting in Ukraine. Its military has relied heavily on recruiting inmates to fill its ranks, allowing Putin to avoid the politically unpopular step of imposing a new draft.

The pardon of Khadzhikurbanov follows a series of similar decisions by Russia that highlights how the Kremlin is willing to release convicted criminals, including murderers and rapists, as long as they help the war effort in Ukraine.

Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov on Friday defended the practice. “They are atoning with blood in storm brigades, under bullets and under shells,” he told reporters, referring to the criminals.

More than a dozen other pardons for violent criminals in return for service in Ukraine have been reported across Russia.