Supporter of Vyacheslav Maltsev Alexei Politikov was sentenced to two years in prison in the “March 26 case”

The Tverskoy District Court of Moscow has sentenced Alexei Politikov, a supporter of Vyacheslav Maltsev, to two years in prison for attacking police officers during a protest in Moscow on March 26.

According to Mediazona, Politikov pleaded guilty and requested that the case be considered in a special manner. At the trial, his lawyer Sergei Badamshin said that the man had repented and that his “correction had already been achieved,” and asked not to impose a punishment associated with real imprisonment.

Badamshin told Interfax that he intends to appeal the verdict.

• Aleksey Politikov was detained on June 10 in the house of opposition leader Vyacheslav Maltsev. According to investigators, at a rally on March 26 in Moscow, he grabbed a policeman and punched him in the abdomen, because of which he "experienced physical pain."
• Aleksey Politikov became the fifth person convicted of using violence against policemen at the rally on March 26 in Moscow. Other convicts are Yury Kuliy, Alexander Shpakov, Stanislav Zimovets and Andrey Kosykh. They received from eight months to four years in prison (in October Kosykh's four-year term was reduced by four months).
• Oppositionist Vyacheslav Maltsev left Russia in July. Soon, his acquaintances reported that criminal cases were opened against him for calls for separatism and the creation of an extremist community.