news in brief

Russia frees editor after outcry

By Afp, Saint Petersburg

A Russian court yesterday released a newspaper editor and former lawmaker, who had been held on extortion charges, after an outcry from supporters and international organisations. Igor Rudnikov, founder and editor of Novye Kolesa in the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad, had been in detention since November 2017, accused of extorting $50,000 from a senior investigator.