Blogger Michael Naki Sentenced in Absentia to 14 Years in a Penal Colony in Two Criminal Cases

Blogger Michael Naki has been sentenced in absentia to 14 years in a penal colony in two criminal cases

Michael Naki was sentenced to five years in a penal colony in a case over calls for activities against state security. The blogger had already been sentenced before; in total, the court gave him 14 years in a general-regime penal colony.

Naki was also banned from administering websites for five years. The prosecutor had requested the same 14 years for the blogger under the cumulative sentences, but in a strict-regime penal colony.

▶️ The Case Against Michael Naki

The criminal case against Naki is connected to a video published on his YouTube channel on the day of Vladimir Putin’s inauguration. Investigators saw in the video “incitement to overthrow the government in Russia, including by physically eliminating Putin”, as well as a negative attitude toward “the use of the Russian army”. That day, the blogger released a video titled “Now Putin Can Be Liquidated. The Day Putin Stopped Being President”.

In 2023, Naki was also sentenced in absentia to 11 years in a general-regime penal colony in a case over spreading “fake news” about the Russian army. Together with Conflict Intelligence Team founder Ruslan Leviev, he was prosecuted over a video summarizing the ninth day of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, where they discussed, among other things, the shelling of the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant.

Naki is not in Russia. In May 2022, he was arrested in absentia, and in September of the same year the Justice Ministry added the blogger to the register of “foreign agents.”

Michael Naki / Photo: SotaVision

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