It turned out that before the XXX-story, the man was under police surveillance for 6 months starting in May 2009. Back then, he was captured by the police with another 16 grams of marijuana and released on the condition that he remained within the city.

Apart from a five-year sentence for drug trafficking, Blinnikov still faces up to two years in jail for hacking into the panel and illegal distribution of adult-only material.

The hacking of the video panel in Moscow happened on January 14. The screen hanging over the innermost ring road of the city played the obscene video for several minutes while drivers stopped to take pictures with their mobile phones, causing a traffic jam.

Blinnikov, who did not deny his involvement in the pornographic stream, said he thought the screen he was hacking was located in a shop rather than the one over one of the biggest streets in the city. He also said that he broadcast the materials after 11 p.m. so children could not watch it. All in all, Blinnikov claimed he only wanted “to entertain people”.