Alexey Navalny and Pyotr Ofitserov had their prison terms suspended earlier this week. The trial court in Kirov sentenced them to five and four years initially; the Kirov Oblast court, acting as a court of appeal in this case, ordered the sentences reduced to probation.
What does it mean? Well, ask a Kremlinologist. There’s little doubt both the original and the reduced sentences were dictated from Moscow. There was a trial. Imperfect and biased, with defense motions mostly denied. But witnesses were summoned, questioned and cross-examined so there was some fact-finding, and the facts spoke “not guilty.” But the judge probably had the sentence written before the trial began, like some countries have election results out before voting starts.