MOSCOW, December 20 (RAPSI, Lyudmila Klenko) - The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) has awarded €2,500 in compensation to Russian nationalist Alexander Potkin for withdrawal of his complaint over long stay in detention from the court, his lawyer Irina Khrunova told RAPSI on Tuesday.

According to the attorney, the ECHR granted a request lodged by Russian authorities to adopt a unilateral declaration over Potkin’s 15-month detention. In the declaration, the Russian government admitted violation of the conditions of confinement and agreed to pay the nationalist €2,500.

This August, the Meshchansky District Court of Moscow sentenced Potkin to 7.5 years in prison for embezzlement and organization of an extremist movement and fined him 600,000 rubles ($9,700). Moreover, the court granted a 4.9 billion-ruble lawsuit filed by the injured party against Potkin ($79.3 million). However, the Moscow City Court granted an appeal by defense and sent the case back to the lower court on December 7.

According to the indictment, 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. Potkin has pleaded not guilty.

Potkin (also known as Belov) 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.