A Russian man has admitted being guilty of distributing leaflets calling for the return of Russia's northern borderlands to Finland, prosecutors said on Wednesday.
The 47-year-old resident of Petrozavodsk, the capital of the northwestern Russian republic of Karelia, has been charged with extremism for printing scores of leaflets and then distributing them in the Karelian town of Sortavala earlier this year.
The activist, whose identity is to be revealed after the verdict comes into force, called to vote for revising the borders and returning the Russian territories to Finland.
The leaflets contained calls for land near the Finnish border in the republic of Karelia and the Murmansk and Leningrad regions, which was annexed by the Soviet Union during World War II, to be returned to Finland.
"The defendant fully acknowledged that he was guilty and said he was acting on his own," a prosecutor's aide, Marina Kozyreva, said.
The leaflets were allegedly distributed from the organization "Ladozhkaya Karelia" but the man later said he had no relation to the organization. The organization also confirmed the man had no ties to the group.
"If he just voiced his opinion, this would not be illegal, but he called for voting, for certain actions, which falls under an article of the [Russian] Criminal Code," Kozyreva said.
The man faces up to three years in jail if convicted. Prosecutors sent his case to court on Monday.
PETROZAVODSK, June 30 (RIA Novosti)
