Yuri Budanov - in Prison

In Prison

On September 21, 2004, Shamanov, now the Ulyanovsk regional governor, signed a pardon for Yury Budanov; Interfax quoted the head of the Ulyanovsk pardons commission, Anatoly Zherebtsov, as saying that if Putin backed the recommendation, Budanov would also get back his military rank and awards.

The commission's decision sparked outrage in Chechnya. "Whether in jail or freed, Budanov will remain a person who has committed a grave crime, which took the life of an innocent girl," Taus Dzhabrailov, the head of Chechnya's parliament, told Interfax. Ramzan Kadyrov said: "The Ulyanovsk commission's decision is like spitting on the soul of the long-suffering Chechen people." Kadyrov has also made statements that "If any of Elza's friends should meet I don't want to predict how they will act. The Chechen people do not consider him to be a human being, and as a war criminal, he does not deserve to be. One might be able to forgive his crime to some extent if he had killed a man. But to sexually assault a girl cannot be forgiven. He is beneath contempt. He has brought shame on the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation."

In February 2006 a Russian prison official announced that Budanov, who is serving his 10-year sentence, might be released early on good behaviour. The Chechen regional branch of the United Russia party addressed the State Duma and the Russian President with a request not to grant amnesty to Yuri Budanov. The same month, on the petition of Budanov's advocate, with account of good behaviour of the inmate, the former colonel was removed from the strict custody colony to a settlement-colony.

On 24 December 2008, a court granted him a release on parole. This was the fifth attempt by Budanov's lawyers to obtain him a release on licence. Four applications before that were rejected. Victim's lawyers appealed to overturn the decision (thus the delay in release), but without success. Former colonel was released on 15 January 2009, 15 months before completion of his conviction term. The decision has been protested by Chechnya's human rights ombudsman, Nurdi Nukhazhiyev, who has accused Russian judges of "double standards" with regard to Russians and Chechens.

The lawyer for the Kungayeva family, Stanislav Markelov, who had attempted a last-minute appeal against the release of Budanov, was shot dead in Moscow on January 19, 2009 along with Anastasia Baburova, a 25-year-old journalist for Novaya Gazeta. However, the investigation of Markelov's murder showеd in November 2009 that the murder was probably unrelated to this case, but committed by Neo-Nazis as a revenge for Markelov's support of Marxist activists as a lawyer.