A 51-year-old electrician from Russia has received a two-year suspended sentence for online posts critical of President Vladimir Putin.
Vladimir Yegorov was accused of extremism in 2016 for writing a post saying “the biggest culprit is the president” in crude language on Russia’s popular Vkontakte social network. The offending post “contained in its linguistic design calls to carry out extremist activities,” Russia’s Mediazona news website cited investigators as saying.
A Tver region court has ordered Yegorov to serve a two-year suspended sentence and placed him on three-year probation, siding with the prosecution, his lawyer told Mediazona on Tuesday.
Yegorov, a liberal opposition Yabloko party activist, has also been banned from moderating online forums and had his hard drive seized by the state.
Unknown vandals reportedly attempted to set the activist’s home on fire in 2017.
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