MOSCOW, June 20 (RAPSI, Lyudmila Klenko) – The Moscow City Court had upheld a sentence given to ex-head of the Federal Agency for Press and Mass Media (Rospechat) and one of the founders of “Rossiyskaya Gazeta” Boris Mironov, for extremism, RAPSI correspondent learnt in the courtroom on Tuesday.

By its decision, the court dismissed an appeal against the sentence and upheld an earlier ruling of the Moscow Basmanny District Court of December 22, 2016, by which Mironov was fined 100,000 rubles (about $1,600) for instigation of extremism. Therefore, the sentence has taken effect.

The court began hearing the criminal case against Mironov last July.

Mironov was charged with making calls for forced regime change. Prosecutors claimed that the defendant in his book “Battle against Jewish Yoke” had intentionally incited readers to armed rebellion, hatred of the Jewish people and sought to dismantle the Russian statehood.

The abovementioned book written by Mironov has prompted initiation of the case against him. Russian publishing house “Algoritm” has issued about 2,000 copies of the book.