The 47-year old Vyacheslav Drezner distributed the leaflets in the border town of Sortavala earlier this year. In June, he was charged of extremism by the procurators office in the Republic of Karelia.
Earlier this week, the man was convicted of undermining the integrity of the Russian Federation, reports The Moscow News. Human rights activists fear the verdict marks yet another clampdown on freedom of speech in Russia.
- There is an issue of freedom of speech here because he was only calling for it… I think that this legislation is indeed flawed, Tanya Lokshina, the deputy director of Human Rights Watch Russia, told The Moscow News.
The eastern part of the former Finnish terrotory Karjala was ceded to Russia after the Winter War of 1939-40. Also areas in in southeastern Finland was ceded by the Soviet Union and is a part of what is today’s Leningrad Oblast.
In the north, Finland had the Petsamo area in the period from 1920 to 1944. The Petsamo-corridorthe area from Lake Inari to the Pechanga fjord and gave Finland access to the Barents Sea.
