The 1st Western District Military Court in St. Petersburg sentenced 56-year-old Dmitry Sorokin to 8 years in prison on charges of public calls for extremism, spreading military 'fakes,' and 11 episodes of justifying terrorism, reported 'Mediazona'*. Exactly the same amount was requested by the prosecution.
The prosecutor listed in court all 13 publications that led to the initiation of the criminal case: 'Desertion memos,' 11 posts about 'Azov'**, 'Russian Volunteer Corps'**, and the 'Freedom of Russia Legion'**, and a post about 'massive bombings.' All posts were published on Sorokin's personal page on VKontakte, even before the posts were published, access to it was blocked by the prosecutor's decision.
Despite this, the court considered that the man made publications for an 'unlimited audience' since the page could be accessed from abroad or with a VPN.
The authorities themselves viewed the page before initiating the criminal case through a free VPN.
Sorokin himself explained in court that after the block, he used the page as a 'storage' for posts to reread them later.
In his final word, the man said that he 'made mistakes by saving materials. There was no intention to propagate or justify anything. I will take these mistakes into account. The internet is closed for me.'
* Recognized in Russia as a 'foreign agent'.
** Recognized in Russia as 'terrorist' organizations.