Interesting outcome. I am not sure Putin (he will have rubber stamped the sentence) could do anything else. In the West they would have got some community service (which they may or may not have bothered to do).
By the way we are minding our own business. These sort of protests come to the worlds attention via the modern phenomena of the Internet. We have no way of avoiding exposure. Maybe I have missed the GB government telling Putin to let them off.
Russia has changed a lot but really things are returning to the old Soviet days. Belarus and Ukraine looked as though they were becoming more liberal but they too look to be returning to old days.
It will be interesting to see Rods2 take on events.
It's none of our business which ever way these countries are turning. We are very selective in our criticism, aren't we?
Assad is bad for putting down the dissenters who roam the streets with guns. But we hardly hear about the Saudi dictators who do the same. Or the Bahrainis. No....we buy our oil from them and they own half of the companies listed on the FTSE100. And half of the large office buildings in London.
What do we want next? A Russian spring? A Chinese spring? By trying to force our ideals on to cultures that work in a totally different way to us, in order to create a 'better and fairer' world, we are in danger of tipping the whole balance of power. Watch out.