Vedomosti, the independent business paper, ran this headline today: “Savchenko’s release became Russia’s PR* defeat.”
I disagree. Doing the right thing – in the simplest sense of right as good – can’t be bad PR. Even if the world thinks you are beyond redemption. I can’t prove it, of course, but… That’s all.
*The Russian word I translated as “public relations” is an adjective derived from propaganda, “propagandistic,” literaly speaking, but prefer “PR” in this context.