The Lefortovo District Court in Moscow sentenced Russian political analyst Andrei Suzdaltsev to 400 hours of mandatory community service in a case involving defamation of Aliaksandr Lukashenka, according to @endoflaw.
The court examined charges under Parts 2 and 5 of Article 128.1 of the Russian Criminal Code, which provide for up to five years of imprisonment. The criminal case was opened after statements he made on his Telegram channel claiming that Lukashenka “admired Hitler” and that “when speaking of the German-fascist genocide, he is actually covering up his own terror and, in essence, is no different from the fascists of the 1940s.”
Suzdaltsev was detained in Moscow in April 2024. Despite initial denials, he was later formally charged. In January 2025, the case was sent back for further investigation, but the process was subsequently resumed. At the latest hearing, Lukashenka’s representative Tatyana Rusetskaya requested that the proceedings be moved behind closed doors — the court was postponed until 1 September. Previous hearings in December 2024 were also held in a non-public format.
In Russia, Suzdaltsev served as an associate professor at the Faculty of World Economy and Politics at the Higher School of Economics until 2021. After his detention, his profile disappeared from the university’s website.
Politician Roman Yuneman published Suzdaltsev’s response to the accusations from the Belarusian embassy:
“The accusation of defaming Lukashenka is absurd, since the Belarusian leader constantly talks and floods the media space with his contradictory statements. There is no need to wage any information war against him — it is enough to quote him, because by the end of yet another monologue he often contradicts what he said at the beginning.
If there is a criminal verdict, I will take it as an act of agent work against me, and I will never drop this topic, proving the politically motivated nature of the trial and Lukashenka’s attempt to take revenge on me and silence me. I have dedicated my life to defending my people and my homeland from all kinds of marauders and pseudo-allies, and I will continue this fight.”
Suzdaltsev called the Lefortovo court’s decision “unique”: in effect, he said, it applied norms of Belarusian law, which contains a specific article on defaming the Belarusian ruler. In his view, the ruling may set a precedent — not only for Russians who criticise Lukashenka, but also for Russian citizens against whom the laws of other countries might be applied on Russian territory.
According to Suzdaltsev, one of the points in the conviction concerned his claim that Lukashenka worked in a prison in the 1980s.
He intends to appeal the ruling.
Suzdaltsev lived and worked in Belarus from 1993 to 2006. In March 2006, he was stripped of his residence permit and deported to Russia for criticising the Lukashenka regime. He currently supports Russia’s aggression against Ukraine. In early 2024, Suzdaltsev’s Telegram channel was designated an “extremist formation” in Belarus.
The criminal case against Suzdaltsev was initiated at the request of the Belarusian embassy in Russia under the defamation article (128.1 Parts 2 and 5 of the Russian Criminal Code). Belarusian state media have claimed that criminal cases have also been opened against him in Belarus, including for organising an “extremist formation.”