MOSCOW, December 15 (RAPSI, Oleg Sivozhelezov) – The Moscow City Court reduced Thursday a 500,000-rubles fine imposed on famous Russian blogger Anton Nosik who had been convicted and sentenced for extremism, a court official told RAPSI on Thursday.

The court partially changed the sentence issued by the Presnensky District Court of Moscow and lowered fine issued against Nosik from 500,000 rubles (about $8,000) to 300,000 rubles (about $4,800) after reviewing appeal filed by Nosik’s lawyer Sergei Badamshin.

The Presnensky District Court ruled that Nosik had performed acts aimed at incitement of enmity and hatred towards a group of individuals named “the Syrians” on the ground of national origin and area basis. A judge noted that discrimination based on nationality, religion or race is inadmissible.

As previously reported, a criminal case against Nosik was opened after he had posted an article called “To wipe Syria off the map” on the Internet.  He was charged with incitement of hatred or enmity as well as violation of human dignity.

The blogger has pleaded not guilty insisting that the distributed information was his private opinion.

Nosik is a popular Russian blogger and startup manager. He earlier acted as an editor in various outstanding online news media outlets, a manager of Rambler search engine and blog office of Russian media company SUP which owns LiveJournal social networking service.