Rospechat ex-chief Mironov fined 100,000 rubles for extremist calls
MOSCOW. Dec 22 (Interfax) - The Basmanny court of Moscow has imposed a 100,000 ruble fine on an ex-chief of the Federal Agency on Press and Mass Communications (Rospechat), Boris Mironov, who was charged with calls for extremism, according to the verdict read out by judge Yulia Safina, an Interfax correspondent reported.
On October 28, 2015, the Federal Security Service Directorate for Moscow and the Moscow region indicted Mironov of public calls for extremist activities, which entails maximum penalty of four years' imprisonment.
The defendant has pleaded not guilty and claims the charges are politically motivated.
The criminal case was opened after two of Mironov's books, "Russians. The last frontier" and "The battle against Judaist yoke," were declared extremist by the Zamoskvoretsky court of Moscow on October 13 and December 12, 2014.
In all, six books authored by Mironov and published by Algorithm, as well as a number of his periodical articles are on the federal list of extremist materials, which is available on the Russian Justice Ministry's website.
Mironov is well-known for his nationalist and anti-Semitic views. In February of 2008 the Central district court of Novosibirsk found him guilty of "inciting hatred or animosity" over his anti-Semitic remarks but relieved him of criminal liability in view of the expired statute of limitations.
From December 1993 to September 1994 journalist and commentator Mironov led the Russian Federation Committee for the Press, which replaced the Russian Ministry of the Press and Information and the Federal Information Agency.