On 22 February 2017 the Supreme Court ordered the release of Ildar Dadin from prison, the BBC reported. Dadin has been serving a two-and-a-half-year prison sentence under the notorious Article 212.1 of the Russian Criminal Code. As the BBC noted in its report, Dadin is the only person to have been prosecuted under the new Article 212.1 since its introduction. Article 212.1 penalises those found guilty of violating Russia's protest rules at least three times within 180 days. The sentence ranges from from a fine of 600,000 roubles to one million roubles and 'corrective labour' or up to five years in prison. Following a ruling on 10 February 2017 by the Constitutional Court in Dadin's case that Article 212.1 should not be applied where there was no threat to the public nor in cases where earlier court judgments concerning convictions had not entered into force, the Supreme Court decided that the criminal case against Dadin should be dismissed and he had a 'right to rehabilitation'.

However, on 24 February 2017 lawyers acting for Ildar Dadin appealed to the European Court of Human Rights for assistance in freeing Dadin, RFE/RL reported. Dadin continued to be held in a prison colony in the Altai region despite his sentence being annulled. RFE/RL reported: 'Officials in the penal colony in Altai Krai region in southern Siberia say they cannot free Dadin before they receive the original release order from the Supreme Court.'