MOSCOW, December 26 (RAPSI) – A court in Sochi on Wednesday sentenced editor-in-chief of blogsochi.ru website Alexander Valov to 6 years in prison for extortion of 300,000 rubles ($4,300) from the State Duma lawmaker Yury Napso, his attorney Alexander Popkov told RAPSI.

The lawyer calls the sentence given to the blogger too harsh.

Valov, 33, was arrested on January 19, 2018, after searches were conducted in his apartment. The editor-in-chief of BlogSochi pleaded not guilty and called the prosecution politically motivated because he posted publications criticizing authorities on his website.