On December 30, 2021, the defendant in the “palace case” from Kazan, Elnar Efimov, was released from penal colony No. 17 in Tatarstan. This is reported by SOTA.

On August 5, Efimov was sentenced to one and a half years in a penal colony under articles on calls for extremist activity (Part 2 of Article 280 of the Criminal Code) and mass riots (Part 3 of Article 212 of the Criminal Code). The case was opened in connection with messages in a telegram chat during the winter protests in support of Alexei Navalny.

After the arrest of politician Alexei Navalny, a series of protests took place throughout Russia; mass rallies took place on Saturday, January 23, Sunday, January 31, and February 2 (the day Navalny’s suspended sentence was replaced with a real one). Security forces reacted harshly to the protests: on January 23, more than 4,000 people were detained, on January 31, more than 5,500 , and on February 2, more than 1,400 people .
In connection with the rallies in support of Alexei Navalny, which took place from January 23 to February 2, more than 150 criminal cases were opened throughout the country. Protest participants were accused of using violence against security forces (Article 318 of the Criminal Code), violating sanitary and epidemiological rules (Part 1 of Article 236 of the Criminal Code), involving minors in illegal activities (Part 2 of Article 151.2 of the Criminal Code), blocking roads (Article 267 CC). The totality of these cases is called the “palace case,” since one of the catalysts for the protests was the FBK investigative film “ Palace for Putin. The story of the biggest bribe ."

Person involved in the “palace case” Elnar Efimov was released