The city court in Karelia’s capital Petrozavodsk found Popov guilty of extorting a large sum of money from a council member, threatening to publish materials compromising him. Popov got a suspended seven-year sentence and fined 400,000 rubles (USD 11,000), reports The Moscow Times.
Vasily Popov is a member of the opposition party Yabloko. The party has been critical of what it says is the repression of civil rights and democratic freedoms in Russia, but has lost ground to pro-Kremlin parties such as United Russia and Fair Russia.
Popov is the only Yabloko member running the council in a major Russian city.
This is a pure politically motivated case from the very beginning to the end. I believe this is revenge by the local authorities and their attempt at self-defence, Popov told Reuters after he got the sentence.
Popov said legal proceedings against him had been launched shortly after he sent the letter to Putin. In the letter Popov was accusing the pro-Kremlin Karelia’s regional head Sergei Katanandov of corruption and requesting he be sacked.
Popov says he will appeal against the sentence.
