A RUSSIAN court has paroled a physicist convicted in 2004 of spying for China, a case rights activists said was an example of Vladimir Putin's use of the courts against opponents.
Rights campaigners welcomed the three-year reduction of Valentin Danilov's 14-year sentence but said it did not signal the President would halt what they say is the Kremlin's practice of using the judiciary to stifle dissent.
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