The court in Minsk sentenced the Russian Dudnikov, who voiced the videos of the local opposition channel, to 11 years in prison

The Minsk City Court sentenced 21-year-old Russian citizen Yegor Dudnikov to 11 years in prison on charges of inciting “social hatred”, as well as calls for actions “harming national security.” TASS reports.

As “Novaya Gazeta” clarifies, the prosecutor’s office of Belarus also asked the court to appoint the same period.

Lawyer Anton Gashinsky told the publication that when the verdict is passed, the defense will immediately begin the procedure for extraditing Dudnikov to Russia.

Recently, the Kremlin said that the head of state is following the fate of Russian citizens who have found themselves under trial or investigation in Belarus.

“The legal or other persecution of any Russian citizen abroad is an issue that causes our concern,” quotes the press secretary of Vladimir Putin Dmitry Peskov “Interfax”. – The fate of any Russian citizen who is persecuted abroad is handled by the Russian side through our missions abroad. Everything that is possible is being done to protect the interests of our citizens. “

To the clarifying question whether the Belarusian side hears Moscow’s position, the Kremlin spokesman replied: “We are in constant dialogue. It is regular and ongoing. “

Earlier, the judge Sergei Khripach announced the trial of the Russian is closed. According to the lawyer, the case was closed for the listeners so that “nothing would interfere with the consideration of the criminal case”, since Dudnikov, Gashinsky points out, “creates a rather unpredictable situation” for the court, and in a closed process “it doesn’t matter what he says, it doesn’t matter no one will hear it. “

Let’s remind that Russian Yegor Dudnikov was detained on May 5 in Minsk. The city prosecutor’s office took the Russian citizen’s case to court on November 22. According to the version of the investigation, the young man from January to May “posted at least 55 voice messages of an incentive character” sounded by him “on the Telegram channel, ostensibly to” escalate tension and conflict in society and the state. “

“By his messages, the accused incited social hostility and strife on the basis of professional affiliation. He formed a negative image of the representatives of the authorities and hostility towards them. He persuaded citizens to take planned illegal actions. In his Telegram chat, he called for the seizure of state power, forcible change of the constitutional order, the emergence of mass riots with violence against government officials, as well as other actions to the detriment of the country’s national security, ”the supervisory agency said.

Novaya Gazeta notes that earlier the lawyer gave the editorial office a letter from Dudnikov, where he said that during a search in his apartment he was kicked twice in the chest area, then they seized all equipment, documents and personal diaries, put a bag on his head and took him to automobile.