The Russian president, Vladimir Putinpardoned the murderer of a Russian student sentenced to 17 years in jail after fought in Ukraine, according to human rights defenders denounced today. The murderer, Vladislav Kaniusfrom the Siberian region of Kemerovo, received a presidential pardon in April this year and is free.

“That is, Putin simply pardoned a murderer (…) On her (Vera Pejteleva’s) body 111 wounds (including bruises, stab wounds and other blows). Before her death He raped Vera and then strangled her with the cord of the iron,” assured the activist Aliona Popova on his Telegram channel. Furthermore, he recalled that the current law allows prisoners to be released in times of war or mobilization even from such crimes, but only after receiving medals or state orders or leaving the service for reasons of age.

Oxana, the mother of the murdered student, found out about the criminal’s release when she saw a photograph of Kanius in camouflage on social networks, according to the digital newspaper Meduza. “My daughter, forgive me, is rotting under the ground. They have taken my life. This is a slap in the face to me and to those mothers whose children have been brutally murdered. There are many of us across the country and we don’t know what to do,” she commented.

He added: “Can someone explain to me how I can continue living? This monster, cleared of criminal charges, (…) can at any moment kill us for revenge to each of us, the victims.” The Prosecutor’s Office informed the student’s family of the pardon after the prison services refused to report her whereabouts.

Putin admitted to having signed pardons after former prisoners fought in Ukraine, where some 20,000 died in the ranks of the Wagner Group alone during the operation to conquer the Ukrainian bastion of Bakhmut. Some sources assure that the Ministry of Defense would have already renounced this practice after betting on offer to sign well-paid contracts in exchange for going to the frontwhich in the case of immigrants would include the granting of Russian citizenship.