A Moscow judge has sentenced prominent Russian libertarian and media influencer Mikhail Svetov to one year in prison in absentia after he was found guilty of violating the country’s “foreign agent” law, the Moscow Prosecutor’s Office said Thursday.
Svetov has been fined for the same violation at least five times since being added to Russia’s “foreign agent” list in November 2022.
The 41-year-old left Russia in 2021 after a police raid on his home and a nine-day administrative arrest connected to protests in support of late opposition leader Alexei Navalny.
“While outside Russia, he distributed materials on social media without indicating that they were created and distributed by an individual performing the functions of a foreign agent,” the Moscow Prosecutor’s Office said in a statement.
In addition to sentencing him in absentia to one year at a medium-security penal colony, an arbitration court also banned Svetov from running websites or social media accounts for three years.
Russia’s Justice Ministry added the unregistered Libertarian Party of Russia, which Svetov previously led, to its “foreign agent” database in July.
Around the same time, state media reports claimed that law enforcement authorities charged Svetov with “rehabilitating Nazism” in connection with a video of a Ukrainian song he posted online.
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