MOSCOW, November 21 (RAPSI) - Speaking about those accused in the Bolotnaya Square riot case at a meeting with writers and literary critics, Russian President Vladimir Putin said that those who should be pardoned will be pardoned.

“I sign executive orders for pardons regularly. Everyone who deserves to be pardoned will be pardoned,” he said. Putin stressed that everyone in Russia must respect the law.

“We must all learn to live by the book and understand that if someone can get away with breaking the law we could face problems similar to what happened in 1917.”
The mass riots on Bolotnaya Square resulted from a Moscow protest rally on the eve of Vladimir Putin's inauguration for a third presidential term in May 2012. The rally ended in clashes between protesters and police.

Over 400 people were arrested and scores were injured when protesters briefly broke through police lines.

A criminal case was initiated after the "Anatomy of Protest 2" documentary film was shown on the NTV network. The film claimed that the opposition was organizing a coup using funds from abroad and showed Left Front movement coordinator Sergei Udaltsov and his supporters allegedly talking with Georgian politician Givi Targamadze, who at the time headed Georgia's Parliamentary Defense and Security Committee, and is said to have been involved in planning the "color" revolutions in Georgia and Ukraine, as well as the mass riots in Belarus.