Igor Stenin leaves Russia

Astrakhan activist Igor Stenin has left Russia together with his wife and son for fear of pressure on his relatives from law enforcers.

On May 16, 2016, Igor Stenin was sentenced to two years of imprisonment in a penal settlement colony for reposting in a social network an article about the war in Ukraine. According to the defence, Igor Stenin was sentenced for a comment of another user left under his entry.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that on May 30, the verdict was cancelled, and the case was closed for lack of components of crime. Igor Stenin was released, but Deputy General Prosecutor Leonid Korzhinek challenged the court's decision. On November 9, the Supreme Court (SC) of Russia returned the Igor Stenin's case to the court of appeal, and on December 21, the Astrakhan Regional Court upheld the verdict to the activist.

The activist noted that "threats prompted him to leave Russia together with his family members." "To prevent law enforcers from exerting pressure on my family members, we decided to leave together. Meanwhile, we already received threats. We also regularly receive summons to investigators," Igor Stenin reported.

Meanwhile, he has emphasized he intends to seek justice after a repeated verdict in his case.

Igor Stenin expects to achieve the cancellation of the verdict and then demand compensation for unreasonable prosecution.

Full text of the article is available on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’.