In Russia, political scientist Suzdaltsev was sentenced for "defamation" against Lukashenko.
The Lefortovo Court of Moscow sentenced Suzdaltsev, a former lecturer at the Higher School of Economics, to 400 hours of mandatory labor for defamation of Alexander Lukashenko.
Today, the Lefortovo Court of Moscow considered the case of political scientist Andrei Suzdaltsev, who is accused of libel against Alexander Lukashenko (Article 128.1, Part 2 and Part 5 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation). The punishment under this article provides for up to 5 years of imprisonment, reports the Telegram channel "Word of Defense."
The reason for the criminal case was his statements on the Telegram channel that Lukashenko "admired Hitler" and "speaking of the Nazi genocide, in fact covers up his terror and, in fact, is no different from the fascists of the 1940s."
In April last year, Suzdaltsev was detained in Moscow. The man himself denied his detention, but he was later charged with клевета.
In January 2025, Suzdaltsev's case was returned to the prosecutor's office for revision, but now it is being considered again. At the end of the short meeting, Lukashenko's representative, Tatyana Rusetskaya, demanded that the process be closed to listeners: the motion will be considered next time; the court was adjourned to September 1. The previous process was also closed in December 2024.
The political scientist worked in Belarus from 1993 to 2006. During his time in the country, Suzdaltsev regularly criticized the Belarusian authorities. In 2006, the man was deported from Belarus, deprived of his residence permit. Now the man is wanted by Belarus for creating an extremist formation. Suzdaltsev ran a Telegram channel, which was included by the Belarusian authorities in the list of "extremist organizations."
In Russia, Suzdaltsev worked at the Higher School of Economics as an associate professor at the Faculty of World Economy and Politics until 2021. After his detention, the university removed the political scientist's profile from the website, presumably at the request of the Belarusian authorities. Previously, the university included him three times among the best teachers.