Russian man jailed for ex-girlfriend’s brutal murder in 2020 pardoned by Putin following stint in Ukraine
Vladimir Putin has issued a pardon for Vladislav Kanyus, a Kemerovo native who was sentenced to 17 years in prison for the brutal murder of 23-year-old college student Vera Pekhteleva in 2020, according to human rights lawyer Alyona Popova.
Popova posted a message from the Rostov Regional Prosecutor’s Office to Pekhteleva’s parents on Telegram. According to the document, the Russian president issued the pardon on April 27, 2023.
In June, Pekhteleva’s family learned that Kanyus had been released from prison in order to fight in the war in Ukraine. In September, Popova reported that the convicted murderer had returned from the front and was free.
“What should we do? The same as always: don’t be silent!” Popova wrote on Telegram:
Shout as loud as we can. If we stay silent, we’re simply accepting that these kinds of killers will be walking freely among us. Send this to the media outlets you read. Let them write about it. Let them ask [Putin spokesman Dmitry] Peskov about whether this decision is appropriate. Let them ask the prosecutor’s office why it didn’t see any violations here. We can’t let them live in peace. Let them make excuses for their ‘heroes’ in front of the entire country.
