In St. Petersburg, the court refused to acquit opposition politician Maxim Reznik in a drug case

The St. Petersburg City Court refused to acquit opposition politician Maxim Reznik in the case of buying drugs (Part 1 of Article 228 of the Criminal Code) and upheld the verdict. This was reported in the channel of the press service of the city courts.

In April, the Oktyabrsky Court of St. Petersburg sentenced Reznik to five months in a penal settlement. According to investigators, the politician purchased 18 grams of a herbal drug for personal use from his relative Ivan Dorofeev. Reznik himself did not admit his guilt, and Dorofeev stated in court that he slandered the oppositionist under pressure.

After the verdict was pronounced, the politician was released in the courtroom - the judge credited the 10 months he spent under house arrest.

Maxim Reznik is a former deputy of the city Legislative Assembly. He was detained on June 17, 2021, the day after the announcement of elections to the regional parliament, in which he planned to participate. Subsequently, the politician refused to continue the election campaign.

• Before the criminal case, Reznik faced pressure due to protest activism: in March 2021, he was detained in Moscow at the “Municipal Russia” forum; in February 2020, a complaint was filed against the deputy for participating in an auction in support of political prisoners; he was also detained during time of the May Day procession in 2019.
• In June 2022, VKontakte blocked Reznik’s page at the request of the Prosecutor General’s Office - he allegedly disseminated “unreliable socially significant information aimed at destabilizing the socio-political situation in the Russian Federation.”