Former Young Guard activist fined for distributing Nazi symbols

On March 16, 2015, it became known that the Railway Court of Ulan-Ude found the former deputy head of the local branch of the Young Guard, Maria Burdukovskaya, guilty of promoting or publicly displaying Nazi symbols (Article 20.3 of the Code of Administrative Offenses) and fined 1,000 rubles for publishing a picture in support of so called "grammar Nazis" - those who fight for the purity of the language and spelling. This is reported by the online magazine "Respublika".

The reason for the administrative persecution was the reposting of the symbol of the Grammar Nazi movement - an image of an eagle resembling a Nazi one, with the inscription "Grammatik Macht Frei" ("Grammar makes free"). (In different versions, the eagle holds in its paws either a stylized Latin letter G, or, indeed, a swastika.)

Burdukovskaya's publication was discovered by the Federal Security Service of Russia in the Republic of Buryatia. On March 5, a report on an administrative offense was drawn up against a 24-year-old girl. The FSB considered the picture "an image of a fascist swastika that promotes the ideology of Nazism."

At the trial on March 5, Burdukovskaya stated that she was not engaged in propaganda of Nazism, but posted a picture in support of the “correctness and purity of the Russian language,” but her arguments were not accepted by the court.

Information and analytical center "Sova" considers this decision of the court unlawful. From their point of view, the images of the swastika and the eagle could not be considered in isolation from the context of the image. SOVA also notes that, unfortunately, the current legislation provides for punishment both for propaganda and for any other public demonstration of prohibited symbols, which very often does not have propaganda purposes.