Nationalist Potkin said that he was taken to court in a bathrobe

Nationalist Alexander Potkin (Belov), who is under house arrest, said that he was taken to court for a hearing to extend the preventive measure in a bathrobe.

As a result of the hearing, the court extended Potkin’s house arrest.

Now the nationalist is accused of legalizing the property of the Kazakh BTA Bank (Part 4 of Article 174 of the Criminal Code). In August 2016, the nationalist was sentenced to 7.5 years in prison on this charge, as well as episodes of inciting hatred (Article 282 of the Criminal Code), public calls for extremism (Article 280 of the Criminal Code) and creating an extremist community (Article 282.1 of the Criminal Code). Then the Moscow City Court reduced this period to 3.5 years. However, the case was later sent for a new appeal hearing and in March 2018, the Moscow City Court again reduced the sentence to the same term.

In April, after three and a half years in prison, Potkin was transferred to house arrest during the investigation.

In the fall of 2015, the nationalist’s lawyer Ivan Mironov said that investigator Rustem Shaidullin threatened Potkin, who was then in a pre-trial detention center. “I received threatening messages on my mobile phone from a subscriber number belonging to the investigator. If Potkin does not sign a protocol acquainting himself with the case within a week, then the subscriber with whom I spoke on the phone will kill him. He will bring a screwdriver to the isolation ward, according to him, he has already done this, and will try to stick it in his eye. If this does not lead to death, then he may break his neck or be hit with an awl,” the lawyer said.

Potkin previously headed the Movement against Illegal Immigration (DPNI). In 2011, the court declared it extremist and banned it. Potkin later joined the “Russians” movement, but it was also banned in 2015.