Man blows up Czar monument, gets 19 years

MOSCOW, Aug. 31 (UPI) -- A Russian court in Moscow has sentenced a man to 19 years in prison for blowing up a monument to the last czar, Nicholas II.

Mosnews reports Andrei Gubkin, identified as a leftist extremist, also was accused of trying to blow up a huge bronze statue of Peter the Great. He was found guilty of illegal possession and manufacturing of explosives and also of a real estate swindle.

A jury acquitted Gubkin on charges of organizing a revolutionary council and plotting a coup.