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'Bolotnaya' Protester Released From Russian Prison After Serving Term


Bolotnaya Square Protester Ishevsky Released From Prison
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WATCH: Bolotnaya Square Protester Ishevsky Released From Prison

One of several activists imprisoned following clashes at a protest on the eve of President Vladimir Vladimir Putin's inauguration to his current term has been released after serving a 38-month sentence.

Dmitry Ishevsky was freed from a prison in the Yaroslavl region northeast of Moscow on July 26.

Ishevsky was one of more than 400 people detained after clashes erupted between police and demonstrators at the May 6, 2012 rally on Moscow's Bolotnaya Square.

Ishevsky pleaded guilty to using violence against a law-enforcement officer during the protest, where activists accused police of provoking the clashes.

The rally was one of a series of large opposition protests sparked mainly by anger over electoral fraud and dismay at Putin's decision to return to the presidency after a stint as prime minister.

More than 30 people were prosecuted in connection with the clashes, and more than 20 were sentenced to prison or served time in pretrial custody.

Amnesty International has said that the police action at the rally "was not the quelling of a riot but the crushing of a protest," and that all those prosecuted were "victims of a politically motivated show trial."

Another activist jailed over the Bolotnaya Square protest, Ivan Nepomnyashchikh, is serving time in the same Yaroslavl regional prison.

The coordinator of the Levy Front (Left Front) opposition movement, Sergei Udaltsov, who was convicted of involvement in organizing the Bolotnaya protest, is serving a 4 1/2-year prison term in the Tambov region.

Another Bolotnaya protester, Maksim Panfilov, has been placed in a psychiatric clinic in Astrakhan.

Dmitry Buchenkov, who claims he did not take part in the Bolotnaya protest, is currently on trial in Moscow for allegedly assaulting police on Bolotnaya Square.

With reporting by OVD-Info

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