Putin pardoned several high-profile prisoners in 2013 as a publicity stunt to win the good graces of Western leaders he invited to the 2014 Sochi Olympics.
* To add it was also to alleviate the domestic fallout from the protests against him that had dominated headlines earlier in the year when hundreds of thousands of protests took the streets upon his return to power to replace Dmitry Medvedev after taking a ‘break.’
The Sochi plus Crimea grab later on were ploys to revamp his relationship to the public.