Russian Cannibal Killer Released After Serving in Ukraine: Kremlin’s Policy Sparks Debate

2023-11-22 11:24:59

Cannibal killer released in Russia following serving in Ukraine

The Kremlin said on Wednesday it was maintaining its policy of presidential pardon for prisoners agreeing to fight in Ukraine, following the Russian press revealed the release of a man convicted of satanist and cannibalistic murders.

Nikolai Ogolobiak, sentenced to 20 years in prison in 2010, was pardoned by President Vladimir Putin and returned home in early November, according to the 76.ru news portal from the Yaroslavl region where the person has settled and where his crimes had been committed.

A case that caused a lot of noise

This pardon and those of other convicts, like one of the accomplices in the assassination of journalist Anna Politkovskaya, opened a timid debate in Russia on the merits of this policy. However, the Kremlin, questioned on the subject once once more on Wednesday, does not foresee any change.

“The question is not new, it has been raised several times, and currently everyone is looking closely at these lists of pardoned people,” noted Dmitri Peskov, Vladimir Putin’s spokesperson. “But I repeat, these are specific conditions (of grace), linked to a presence on the front line, to a certain duration spent on the front line, linked to participation in assault groups, and that is following that there is grace,” he explained, adding that “there is no revision” of this policy.

Families of victims in other cases have denounced this measure, especially since some families were not informed of these releases.

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