Blogger Kharchenko* sentenced to seven years in colony

A court in Gelendjik has found blogger Vadim Kharchenko* guilty of repeated discrediting the Russian Army, slander, insulting believers’ feelings, and calls for extremism, and sentenced him to seven years in penal colony. This was reported by the United Press Service of the Courts of the Krasnodar Territory in its Telegram channel.

Earlier, Kharchenko* declared his innocence. He believes that his criminal prosecution is revenge for publicity and criticism of corrupt officials.

Vadim Kharchenko* is a well-known activist and blogger. In his YouTube channel "Personal Opinion", which had 399,000 subscribers as of the end of 2023, he talked about politically motivated criminal cases, detentions at public events, law enforcers’ arbitrariness, the problems of the Krasnodar Territory and other regions, and also criticized the authorities. Kharchenko's* civic position and the popularity of his videos could have been the reason for the attention of law enforcement bodies to the blogger, human rights defenders have pointed out, recognizing Kharchenko* as a political prisoner.

*Included by the Russian Ministry of Justice (MoJ) into the register of foreign agents.