Anti-war sociologist and Marxist theorist Boris Kagarlitsky has been fined 600,000 rubles ($6,600) for “justifying terrorism” in comments he made about Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine, independent media reported Tuesday.
Kagarlitsky, founder and chief editor of the left-wing news organization Rabkor, was detained in July in connection with a since-deleted YouTube video about the 2022 Crimea bridge explosion.
The sociologist denied the charges of “justifying terrorism” against him.
A Moscow military court — which heard the case at the Supreme Court of northwestern Russia’s republic of Komi — found Kagarlitsky guilty, Rabkor reported.
The court ordered Kagarlitsky to pay 600,000 rubles ($6,600) in damages and released him from detention.
Prosecutors had requested a five-and-a-half-year prison sentence for Kagarlitsky earlier Tuesday.
The maximum punishment under Russia’s laws on “justifying terrorism” is seven years in prison.
Kagarlitsky has been a vocal critic of Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine, but he has remained in Russia despite the Kremlin’s sweeping crackdown on anti-war activism.
He serves as director of the Institute of Globalization and Social Movements, which Russia’s Justice Ministry labeled a “foreign agent” in 2018.
Kagarlitsky himself was designated a “foreign agent” in May 2022.
