Prominent Russian blogger Anton Nosik was charged with extremism on Tuesday and faces up to four years in prison, according to Russian media reports.
The blogger is accused of inciting hatred, following his November post on the LiveJournal blog service titled “To raze Syria to the ground.” The blogger compared Syria to Nazi Germany and wrote that for him and “any other Israeli,” Syria remains the “real military enemy.”
Nosik, who was ordered not to leave Moscow following the charges, has refused to remove the post from his blog and insists that he does not consider it extremist.
In early April the blogger announced his decision to run for Russia’s lower house of parliament, the Duma, in the country’s legislative election in September.
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