Estonia grants political asylum to Russian blogger

© RIA Novosti . Mikhail FomichevBlogger Savva Terentyev
Blogger Savva Terentyev - Sputnik International
Subscribe
Estonia has granted political asylum to a Russian blogger and musician convicted three years ago of inciting hatred against police, a spokesman for the Baltic country's police and border guard department said on Wednesday.

Estonia has granted political asylum to a Russian blogger and musician convicted three years ago of inciting hatred against police, a spokesman for the Baltic country's police and border guard department said on Wednesday.

"I can confirm that he and his family members received political asylum yesterday," the spokesman said.

Blogger Savva Terentyev, then living in the city of Syktyvkar in northwestern Russia's Komi Republic, received a one-year suspended sentence in 2008 after he left a comment on a local journalist's LiveJournal blog in 2007 calling for dishonest police officers to be burned.

The comment was his reaction to the journalist's post on a police raid on an opposition newspaper.

In an interview with the BBC's Russian service earlier this week, the blogger said he does not regret his decision to leave Russia as he has faced difficulties trying to apply for a job after the conviction.

"Everything resulted in me receiving the right to live in Europe. Now I can freely move around the CIS and the EU," Terentyev said.

He however regretted making the comment that brought him notoriety and the suspended sentence but repeated that he still does not admit he broke the law as it was "normal for personal correspondence between two young people."

Newsfeed
0
To participate in the discussion
log in or register
loader
Chats
Заголовок открываемого материала