Sochi activist to be conditionally released from Russian prison

MOSCOW – A Russian activist who had drawn attention to the environmental fallout of the Sochi Olympics will be conditionally released from prison.

Yevgeny Vitishko had been sentenced to three years in prison in February 2014 as the Winter Olympics were taking place in the southern Russia resort region. A court on Tuesday reduced the sentence from imprisonment to “limited freedom,” under which he will be out of prison but limited to living in his home municipality.

Vitishko produced reports on the consequences of the massive construction projects for the Sochi Games. But he was sentenced for spray-painting protest graffiti on a fence at what he said was the local governor’s property in a national forest where construction is forbidden.