The court has released from punishment a Sochi resident accused of organizing DDoS attacks on opposition websites during the 2011 protests.

The Lazarevsky District Court of Sochi sentenced local resident Ivan Shuvalov to three years in prison on charges of DDoS attacks on the BlogSochi website and other opposition resources in 2011-2012. At the same time, Shuvalov was released from punishment due to the expiration of the statute of limitations for the crime. this to the Caucasian Knot reported The press secretary of the court, Natalya Zubenko, . The first and only hearing in the case against Shuvalov took place on December 29.

Shuvalov was charged under Part 1 of Article 273 of the Criminal Code - creation, use and distribution of malicious computer programs. Opposition activist Alexander Valov, a witness in the case, told Mediazona that Shuvalov was previously an activist in the pro-government organization Young Guard of United Russia (MGER).

According to Valov, in 2011-2012, when protests against massive violations in the State Duma elections took place in Moscow and other Russian cities, DDos attacks began on his BlogSochi website. “I started complaining to law enforcement agencies, wrote a statement to the police, the Investigative Committee, and even addressed a letter to Vladimir Putin. And it turned out that they were investigating this matter. On December 28, I received a text message saying that I was being called as a witness in court in this case,” explained Valov. When he came to the hearing, the judge asked the witness to show his passport, and then released him.

The MGER branch of the Krasnodar Territory reported that Ivan Shuvalov was never officially a member of the organization, but Mediazona’s source, close to youth associations in Sochi in 2011-2012, was close to MGER and was even a member of the Youth Parliament of Sochi.