A court in Rostov-on-Don has sentenced pro-government blogger Sergei Rulev, who was found guilty of extorting an assistant to a State Duma deputy. According to the Rostov Region Today website, he was sentenced to 1 year and 3 months in a colony-settlement, as well as to 320 hours of compulsory work.
Since Rulev spent three months in a pre-trial detention center, he will spend nine months in a colony-settlement (according to the formula “a day in a pre-trial detention center for two days in a colony”). As Kavkaz.Realii writes , in court the blogger asked to be released from criminal liability and sent to Belarus, as the founder of PMC Wagner Yevgeny Prigozhin .
Rulev was found guilty of extortion, insulting a government official and contempt of court. According to investigators, in September 2021, Rulev demanded 100,000 rubles from Tatyana Krashennikova, an assistant to a State Duma deputy from the Communist Party, in exchange for deleting videos previously published on the Internet. In addition, he threatened her with the publication of compromising evidence.
In the same year, Rulev was charged with insulting an investigator of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and contempt of court. Subsequently, all three cases were combined into one proceeding. During the investigation, the blogger was forbidden to write on the Internet and communicate with witnesses. He violated the ban and was sent under arrest.
Sergei Rulev lived in Ukraine until 2014, was known as an activist of the Anti-Maidan movement. Then he moved to Russia, where he became famous for attacks on the opposition. The case against Open Russia activist Anastasia Shevchenko was based on Rulev's denunciation. During her trial, Rulev also wrote a denunciation of her 15-year-old daughter for calling him "a reptile and a bastard."