The Vologda City Court has imposed a fine of 400,000 rubles on local activist and lawyer Yevgeny Molotov in the criminal case on financing extremist activity. This was reported by the human rights project «Support for Political Prisoners. Memorial» with reference to his wife Daria Molotova.
The court sentenced the lawyer to a 600,000 fine, but taking into account the time Molotov spent in a pretrial detention center and under house arrest, reduced this amount to 400,000 rubles. The prosecution requested two and a half years of correctional labor for the lawyer with a 5% salary deduction for the benefit of the state.
A criminal case was opened against Molotov for transferring one thousand rubles to Alexei Navalny's Anti-Corruption Foundation in 2021. The activist explained to the court that he did not know about the Moscow City Court's decision to recognize the FBK as an «extremist» organization when he transferred the money, SotaVision wrote. According to Molotov, he learned about the FBK's status only the next day, August 6, when the Ministry of Justice included the foundation in the list of «extremist».
Since 2011, Molotov has been involved in public activities in Vologda, and in 2014 he was a candidate for deputy of the city Duma. In 2022, he left Russia, but returned to the country at the end of the following year due to his father's serious illness. In January 2024, the lawyer was detained and sent to a pre-trial detention center. In April, the court changed this measure of restraint to house arrest.
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In June 2021, the Moscow City Court declared the FBK an «extremist» organization; this decision came into force on August 4. According to Mediazona's calculations, by February 2024, security forces had opened at least 15 criminal cases on financing extremism due to donations to the fund. In at least eight cases, the defendants are being prosecuted because of donations made on August 5, 2021.
Some of the defendants in these cases have already been convicted. Thus, Syktyvkar resident Vyacheslav Gertsberg was fined 300 thousand rubles, and Irkutsk resident Alexei Kamkin was given a three-year suspended sentence.