MOSCOW -- Russian authorities have cancelled the residence permit of Ukrainian citizen Oleksandra Sveshnikova, who is the wife of the well-known Russian rights activist Ildar Dadin.
Sveshnikova’s lawyer Nikolai Zboroshenko said on February 14 that the Interior Ministry's move will be appealed, adding that the Russian authorities’ main goal is to force Dadin and his wife from the country.
Dadin made headlines more than six years ago after he became the first Russian citizen to be convicted under a controversial law that criminalizes participating in more than one unsanctioned protest within a 180-day period.
He served more than a year in prison after he was convicted under the statute in December 2015.
The legislation then became known in the country as Dadin's law.
Russian human rights group recognized him as a political prisoner at the time.
Dadin has said that while serving his term he and other inmates were tortured and abused at a prison in Russia's northwestern region of Karelia.
