MOSCOW, October 23 (RAPSI) – The Moscow City Court has upheld refusal to change the sentence given to Russian nationalist Alexander Potkin for embezzlement and organization of an extremist movement from prison term to community service, according to the court’s press service.

In August 2016, the Meshchansky District Court of Moscow sentenced Potkin to 7.5 years in prison and fined him 600,000 rubles (about $10,500 at the current exchange rate). Moreover, the court granted a 4.9 billion-ruble lawsuit ($85.3 million) filed by the injured party against Potkin. In April 2017, the Moscow City Court reduced his prison term to 3.5 years.

According to the indictment, Mukhtar Ablyazov, former chairman of the Kazakh BTA Bank, who allegedly 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.

In December 2016, the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) awarded €2,500 in compensation to Potkin for withdrawal of his complaint over long stay in detention from the court.