Actor Pavel Ustinov's sister says he was released from pretrial detention

Actor Pavel Ustinov , a defendant in the "Moscow case" who was sentenced to three and a half years in prison, has been released from pretrial detention. Ustinov's sister Yulia told Deutsche Welle journalists that her lawyer Dmitry Cheshkov had told her about this.

Cheshkov himself, as reported by a Meduza correspondent, confirmed to journalists that Ustinov had been released, but did not specify where this information came from. It is assumed that Ustinov was taken out the back door of the pretrial detention center and taken away without being allowed to talk to the journalists who were waiting for him. Ustinov's mother and sister went home, where he could have been taken.

Earlier, the Moscow City Court ordered Ustinov to be released on bail. On September 26, the court will consider an appeal against Ustinov's sentence.

• After Pavel Ustinov's sentence, many Russian actors spoke out in his support, including Sergei Bezrukov, Mikhail Efremov, and Oleg Menshikov.