More Bolotnaya Activists Jailed in Russia

A Moscow judge has sentenced three Russians to prison over violence at a 2012 protest in Moscow against President Vladimir Putin. The court on August 18 ordered Ilya Gushchin jailed for two and a half years and Alexander Margolin and Alexei Gaskarov to three and a half years each on charges of rioting. A fourth defendant, Yelena Kokhtareva, received a suspended sentence. The four were the latest in a series of Russian activists tried over violence at a protest on the eve of Putin's May 2012 inauguration. Prominent opposition activist Sergei Udaltsov was sentenced in July to four and a half years. Kremlin opponents say the trials in the "Bolotnaya Case" are part of a campaign to stifle dissent. They contend that protesters were provoked and that the state's claims of violence are exaggerated.

http://www.rferl.org/content/russia-bolotnaya-protest-prison/26536611.html