Penza, 13 January 2016. PenzaNews. The regional branch of United Russia gave a hardline reaction to the court order on the case of Andrei Zuev, deputy of the Penza region Legislative Assembly of the fifth convocation for the CPRF faction, who was found guilty under Art. 163 of the Criminal Code, “Extortion,” with a sentence of 6 years in a penal colony, but released from the courtroom because the statute of limitations had expired.

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“We are intentionally not placing any emphasis on the political orientation of deputy Zuev. That is not important here. The important thing is that, to quote Gleb Zheglov, ‘A thief’s place is in prison.’ But the Gorodische area court decided otherwise. While the whole country led by President Vladimir Putin fights corruption and racketeering, the court releases the man found guilty of committing crimes,” says the statement published on the website of the regional party branch on Wednesday, January 13.

United Russia expects justice to prevail, it also stresses.

“The regional branch of United Russia political party expects the common sense to prevail, so that the sentence gets appealed in the regional court, the prosecutors and investigators provide undeniable evidence and basis for a new court sentence that would prove that our law is just and that punishment is unavoidable. And that would be logical and reasonable from a normal human point of view,” the statement says.