A man convicted over the 2006 killing of Russian investigative journalist Anna Politkovskaya has received a presidential pardon after he did a stint fighting in Ukraine.
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Sergei Khadzhikurbanov was sentenced to 20 years in prison in 2014 for his role as an accomplice in the killing of Politkovskaya.
The 48-year-old worked for the independent newspaper Novaya Gazeta and wrote stories critical of Kremlin policies during the early years of President Vladimir Putin's term, the war in Chechnya and human rights abuses.
Politkovskaya was shot and killed in the lift of her Moscow apartment block, triggering outrage at home and in the West, and emphasising the dangers faced by independent journalists in Russia.
Her death on October 7, Putin's birthday, led to suggestions the shooting - in which the Kremlin denied any role - was done to curry favour with the president.
Four others were also convicted over the killing: gunman Rustam Makhmudov and his uncle, Lom-Ali Gaitukayev, who received life in prison, and two of Makhmudov's brothers, who received 12 and 14 years.
Since Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022, private military contractors and the defence ministry have offered prisoners their freedom in exchange for fighting in the war.
Khadzhikurbanov, a former police detective, was released last year to fight in Ukraine and then signed a defence ministry contract to continue serving after his pardon, his lawyer Alexei Mikhalchik told the Associated Pres.
He was offered a command position in the military because he was in the "special forces" in the late 1990s and was in "almost all the hot spots", Mikhalchik said.
Dmitry Muratov, editor-in-chief of Novaya Gazeta, and Ms Politkovskaya's children, Vera and Ilya, condemned Khadzhikurbanov's release.
"For us, this 'pardon' is not evidence of atonement and repentance of the killer. This is a monstrous fact of injustice. ... It is an outrage to the memory of a person killed for her beliefs and professional duty," they said.
Muratov won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2021 but this year was declared by Russian authorities to be a foreign agent, continuing the country's moves to suppress critics and independent reporting.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said earlier this month that convicts recruited to fight in Ukraine were worthy of pardons.
Australian Associated Press
