The “flag with a cross” is now banned in Russia

On August 14, 2009, the Department of Justice once again updated the federal list of extremist materials, adding item 414 to it, which is a long list of certain materials (see in full below), most of which cannot be identified, and some are clearly unique things that impossible to have in a large number of instances by definition. In particular, in this list there are several materials attributed as "layouts" of printed publications, i.e. items that, by definition, do not imply mass character (see the definition of "layout" in the Publishing Dictionary).

However, the most noteworthy in this list was the "flag with a cross" , which is also recognized as extremist material and, thus, is prohibited from being manufactured and widely distributed on the territory of the Russian Federation.

Since no other attributes of this "material" are named in the list, it should probably be considered that from now on all flags on which there are crosses in any form are prohibited in Russia (including the state flags of Switzerland, Great Britain, Norway and a number of other states, the flag of the "Red cross", as well as any flags of Christian organizations in which various crosses are present).

Or it should be recognized that the addition of such a paragraph to the list once again indicates that law enforcement, judicial and other state bodies are not going to literally implement the Federal Law on Combating Extremist Activities, but lawsuits and court decisions on recognizing materials as extremist and replenishing the corresponding list with positions of such qualities are a way of simulating violent activity.

At the same time, we note that the description of the remaining materials, although not always sufficient for their identification, does not leave any doubt about their real public danger. In the long list of materials banned at once, neo-Nazi texts, clearly inciting violence, are quite guessable even by their names.

The most significant, apparently, should be considered the ban on the ABC of Slavic Skinheads, extremely popular among Nazi skinheads (at one time, the ABC was popularized in this environment due to its publication in S. Belikov's book Skinheads, published by the Moscow Bureau of Rights person).

Thus, we do not consider the described court decision as a whole unlawful. We only once again emphasize that the problem of the quality of the Federal List of Extremist Materials (and, accordingly, lawsuits and decisions on bans) is rapidly becoming more acute, up to the direct impossibility of using it as a regulatory document.

N.B. For convenience of perception, we break the list into positions, which, in our opinion, represent separate materials. In the publication of the Ministry of Justice, they look like a listing on a line, where, among other things, different punctuation marks are used for semantic separation.

1. Information materials:

2. poster with the inscription "YO SHARP! RAM A BULLET YOUR NECK",

3. poster with the inscription "Russian National Unity" "Russia! Stop sleeping!",

4. a leaflet with a modified image of the monument to Minin and Pozharsky with the inscription "Look-prince, what scum has started up in the walls of the Kremlin!" "Russian brother! We must save our country and give a future to our children. The Russian liberation movement is waiting for you! Join!",

5. a poster depicting a shooting militant signed "Conscience 18";

6. a Kuklus Klan poster that reads "YOU KNOW WITH HOODS ON SOME OF THESE GUYS COULD PASS";

7. cross flag,

8. a propaganda poster depicting the "Asian locust" flying across the Amur from China to Russia with the inscription "Attention: Asian locust!!! Nobody blocked them, but they feel at home here, because you are not an Asian. YOU WAITING?!!!",

9. text with the heading "ABC of Slavic skinheads" on 4 sheets,

10. issue of the newspaper "Russian Front, Bulletin of the Amur Branch of the RNE No. 6, 2004" on 3 sheets

11. poster with the image of Winnie the Pooh with a grin and a swastika on the sleeve,

12. a poster signed "Conscience 18" depicting a skinhead with the "White Power" emblem on the sleeve of his jacket, kicking a Caucasian face, with a pasted image of a flag with a swastika,

13. self-made page layout: artist's drawing with the caption "Conscience 18" (vol. 2 case sheet 47),

14. propaganda poster with the image of the bus "Grozny - Moscow" and the poster "Nord-Ost",

15. a leaflet with a picture of a girl and the inscription "Daddy, will you protect me from blacks?", "The Russian liberation movement is waiting for you!",

16. a sheet of white paper, on one side of which a man is depicted in the uniform of the Nazi troops of the 2nd World War, holding a banner with a swastika in his hands,

17. drawings with the inscription "Keep the country clean!", with the inscription "Be vigilant!", with the inscription "Rus', wake up!", with the image of Winnie the Pooh with a swastika on his sleeve,

18. a drawing signed "Conscience 18" (depicting a shooting militant),

19. a drawing signed "Conscience 18" (depicting a skinhead with a "white power" sign, beating "a person of Caucasian nationality"),

20. homemade page layout for a future newspaper, comics or other printed matter,

21. a selection of materials from the Internet site "White Fist", in which 18 tips for a white warrior and 13 theses about everyday life are given in the form of instructions: Before it's too late - think about your future (beat the enemy). Strike first, strike accurately, strike hard. Observe secrecy (the country should not know its heroes). Don't hesitate, don't feel sorry for anyone

22. collection of campaign posters

23. self-made page layout: an artist's drawing with the caption "Conscience 18" and a propaganda poster depicting the bus "Grozny - Moscow" and the poster "Nord-Ost",

24. a leaflet of the Russian National Unity on a sheet of white paper A-5 format in black and white with the inscription "Russia is waiting for your will!",

25. a poster on a sheet of white paper A-4 size with a picture of a swastika and a crawling man,

26. two sheets of white A-4 paper with a swastika and the inscription "WHITE FIST NATIONAL SOCIALIST NEWSPAPER"

Recognized as extremist by the decision of the Ordzhonikidzevsky District Court of Ufa of December 8, 2008.

PS It should be noted that on March 6, 2008, the same court already issued a very similar decision to ban a number of neo-Nazi materials. However, it is unlikely that we are talking about the same court decision.

Sources

• Federal list of extremist materials // Official site of the Ministry of Justice of the Russian Federation. 2009. August 14.