Danila Beglets, a father of two and the sole breadwinner of his family, was sentenced to two years in prison for attacking a policeman. At first Beglets insisted he did not take part in the July 27 rally and turned up near the site of the protest by accident. He later admitted using violence against police in an apparent bid for a reduced sentence.
The second, Ivan Podkopayev, was convicted of attacking policemen with pepper spray during the same July rally and sentenced to three years in prison. Over the past weeks, tens of thousands have taken part in protests demanding a fair vote after allies of Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny were barred from the Moscow parliament vote taking place this Sunday. Several thousand people were detained during the demonstrations, and more than a dozen had been facing prison time on charges of mass unrest and attacking policemen.
Protesters insist their rallies are peaceful, while rights groups and Western countries have accused Russian police of using excessive force against demonstrators. Investigators did back down in other cases on Tuesday however, announcing that the mass unrest charges had been dropped against five men detained over the July 27 protest.
Russia's Investigate Committee said that the men, including student Daniil Konon, would instead face lesser, administrative charges. Student Yegor Zhukov was moved to house arrest after the mass unrest charges against him were dropped, but remained under investigation for new charges of online "extremism," investigators said. One man still facing the mass unrest charge, Sergei Fomin, was also moved to house arrest.
Three protest leaders were briefly detained late on Monday, including prominent journalist Ilya Azar and two Navalny allies, in connection with the latest rally held at the weekend. More activists were detained on Tuesday. Azar, a municipal deputy who works for top opposition newspaper Novaya Gazeta, could face up to 30 days in jail, while Navalny ally Lybov Sobol got a hefty new fine.