Brigitte Bardot asked Putin to free the zoo defender Pavlenko, who received a year and a half of the colony

The French actress Brigitte Bardo turned to Russian President Vladimir Putin with a request to release the zoo defender Victoria Pavlenko, who was sentenced to 1.5 years in a colony on charges of theft of a guide dog at the blind singer Julia Dyakova.

“You know my affection for Russia, to its people, but today my heart is torn apart by the injustice that touched Victoria Pavlenko. This noble woman was convicted of a year and a half prison for saving the lost Labrador. How can such a court decision be made in your country?” - quotes Bardo RFI .

According to her, "acting for the benefit of animals is not a crime, but a duty." She expressed the hope that Putin’s heart would not remain cold and indifferent. She emphasized that she begs the president not to break her hope, assuring him in his "sincere friendship."

Brigitte Bardo is known as an active animal defender. In 1986, she opened the fund of her name for well -being and protection of animals. She became a vegetarian and earned three million francs, selling jewelry and personal items at the auction to support the fund.

In 2014, Bardo demanded from the Nepal authorities to ban the large -scale sacrifices of animals held in the country. She wrote an open letter in which she called on the Nepalian president Rama Baran Yadava to prevent the mass of animals at the Hindu festival of Gadhimai Mela. In the summer of this year, the French actress criticized the plans of the Australian authorities to destroy stray cats, calling this idea by genocide .

Recall that the Gagarinsky District Court sentenced Victoria Pavlenko on November 23 to 1.5 years in a colony and a fine of 15 thousand rubles. According to investigators, on July 29, the blind singer Julia Dyakova, who asked for alms, stole Labrador nicknamed Diana. At first, Dyakova decided that the dog ran away somewhere, and began to call her, but then a girl approached her and said that she saw a sighted woman with a guide dog in the subway.

The search for the dog was taken by employees of the RF IC by order of their leader Alexander Bastrykin. On August 6, the representative of the Investigative Committee Vladimir Markin said that Diana was found in a private dog shelter in Stupino near Moscow. The alleged kidnapper of Labrador worked in a shelter by a volunteer. Pavlenko announced a hunger strike, insisting that she simply found a dog in an ammunition without a owner at the Profsoyuznaya metro station.

The court, however, came to the conclusion that the abduction of the dog was committed from "selfish motives." Moreover, as follows from the motivating part of the sentence, Pavlenko stole the dog with Dyakova, as she was sure that the animal did not belong to her, but was used "to attract pity."