Opponents and former Russian deputies Dmitry Gudkov As a result of parliamentary elections in September, the authorities pressured him to announce that he had left Russia for Ukraine. “I am getting closer and closer to Kiev,” he wrote in a Facebook post, adding that sources close to the Kremlin told him that if he does not leave, he will be arrested for a “fake” criminal case against him .
The 41-year-old Gudkov was arrested earlier this week along with another famous Kremlin critic, 39-year-old Andrei Pivovarov, who had been flying to Warsaw minutes before departure The plane disembarked. Gudkov has been arrested for unpaid rent since 2015 and may be sentenced to five years in prison. His supporters called the arrest a punishment for his plan to participate in the election. But then he was acquitted on Thursday night, and the Russian authorities rarely looked back.
His lawyer Mikhail Bilyukov told AFP that Gudkov was released without formal charges. Supporters cheered his release, but said he would not be allowed to run for parliament. At the same time, Pivovarov is still in prison and a court hearing on Wednesday ordered his detention for two months. He is the former executive director of the recently disbanded democratic group Open Russia.
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