MOSCOW, September 1 (RAPSI, Lyudmila Klenko) – Defense filed an appeal against a 7.5–year sentence handed down to Russian nationalist Alexander Potkin for organizing an extremist movement and embezzling funds from the Kazakh BTA Bank, RAPSI learnt in the Meshchansky District Court of Moscow.

Potkin, also known as Alexander Belov, was convicted on August 24. The court also fined the nationalist 600,000 rubles ($9,200) and ordered him to pay 4.9 billion rubles ($75 mln) to suffering party of the embezzlement.

According to prosecutors, Mukhtar Ablyazov, former chairman of the bank, who wanted to destabilize the constitutional order in Kazakhstan, asked Potkin to help him with organizing an extremist group. Potkin allegedly agreed and used funds embezzled from BTA Bank to spread the nationalist ideology in Kazakhstan.

He pleaded not guilty.

Potkin was arrested on October 15, 2014 at the Hotel Intourist Kolomenskoe in Moscow on charges related to the embezzlement of $5 billion from BTA Bank. At the time of the arrest, Potkin allegedly had documents on him that effectively tied him to the embezzlement.

Investigators claimed that Potkin (Belov) was a mastermind in a money laundering operation in 2012-2014. He was also suspected of involvement in laundering money that was embezzled from BTA Bank by its former chairman Mukhtar Ablyazov.

Ablyazov, who allegedly defrauded BTA Bank of more than $6 billion, left Kazakhstan for the UK, where he was granted political asylum in 2011. However, he remained a fugitive from justice since February 2012.

Ablyazov’s whereabouts remained unknown until he was detained on July 31, 2015 near Cannes, France. Kazakhstan, Russia, and Ukraine are all seeking his extradition.

In October 2015, French authorities approved Ablyazov’s extradition to Russia.