The court denied parole to a student who received a prison term for his thesis on extremism

The Chernyansky District Court of the Belgorod Region denied parole to Alexander Kruze. He received two and a half years for his thesis on extremism. This was reported to OVD-Info by Kruse's father.

The court justified the denial of parole with an allegedly negative characterization of Kruse provided by the Federal Penitentiary Service. The characteristic was based on information about the penalty, which the prosecutor's office had previously recognized as illegal and canceled. According to Kruse's father, this confirms the prejudiced attitude of the Federal Penitentiary Service towards his son.

• In December 2017, Alexander Kruse was sentenced to two and a half years in prison for reposting pictures on Vkontakte. Kruse studied at the Faculty of Law and wrote his thesis on the topic "Extremism in modern conditions: international aspects of counteraction." To collect material, he conducted a survey on Vkontakte, publishing relevant images that are easy to find in the public domain on the Internet. Experts found in the posts signs of "inciting hostility and hatred."