Lurye claimed to have compromising information about Slutsker's wife, Olga, in 2006 and demanded $50,000 not to go public with it, Interfax reported, citing investigators.
After Olga Slutsker refused to pay, Lurye published several articles about her in Russian online publications and asked her husband for money to remove the articles, Interfax said.
The senator complained to law enforcement officials, and Lurye was arrested in January 2008.
Moscow's Tverskoi District Court found Lurye guilty of extortion on Tuesday. Lurye, 45, maintained his innocence and promised to appeal.
In the early 2000s, Lurye and the newspapers he worked for at the time, Novaya Gazeta and Versia, had to pay thousands of dollars in fines after being sued for libel for articles that he wrote.
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