Smolensk Court "edit" history

The journalist who published archival pictures of the war of the war was accused ... of the propaganda of Nazism

On April 7, the Smolensk Regional Court rejected the complaint of the journalist of the local site Readovka.ru Polina Petruseva, who was found guilty of the propaganda of Nazism and the public demonstration of Nazi symbols.

Polina was found guilty for ... that she posted on the page on social networks a photograph of the courtyard of her house during the Nazi occupation of Smolensk . In the photo, a flag with a swastika is clearly visible.

- My grandfather on my father’s line was a young prisoner of Nazi concentration camps. - says Polina. - My great -grandmother and great -grandfather on my mother’s line were very famous people in the Belarusian partisan movement. The great -grandmother Antonina went to the partisans after the Germans burned her husband and her children alive, the great -grandfather Stepan Danilievich was a partisan commander. In their honor, I took myself a journalistic pseudonym Danilievich.

“We do not agree with the position of the industrial district court of Smolensk, who found Polina guilty of an administrative violation and fined her a thousand rubles,” says journalist, Ivan Klovkin, lawyer of journalist.

After the trial of Polina, the editors of the website Readovka.ru rules to the judicial authorities a petition with a demand not to prohibit publishing historical pictures. After all, it turns out that the total application of Art. 20.3 of the Administrative Code of the Russian Federation in its current edition means that it is impossible to demonstrate films about the war, documentary military chronicles, to publish archival photos. The historical shot, on which Soviet soldiers throw fascist banners on Red Square, according to the logic of Smolensk judges, should also be prohibited. However, the site employees have their own version of what happened to Polina Petruseva:

- This may be the response of public structures to the activities of journalists of our site, which remains, perhaps, the only media in the Smolensk region that does not depend on the authorities. -said the editor-in-chief of the site Alexei Kostylev. -We protect the civil rights of the inhabitants of the region, which is probably sometimes annoying someone in power.

The Smolensk Regional Court upheld the decision of the industrial district court of Smolensk, who found Pauline guilty of administrative violations of PRO 1 Art. 20.3 Administrative Code of the Russian Federation "Propaganda or public demonstration of Nazi paraphernalia or symbols" and fined it a thousand rubles.

“I had no doubt that the court would make just such a decision, so I would prove the absurdity of this case in the Presidium of the Smolensk Regional Court,” Polina said after the end of the judgment. - If you defend the right to publish historical photos there, too, we will file a complaint with the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation.

It is interesting that the court did not take into account the arguments of the defense, which, as one of the arguments of the innocence of Petruseva, provided a photo report with the main exhibition site of Smolensk (KVC named after the Tenishevs), where these days a photo exhibition dedicated to the 70th anniversary of the Victory is held.

–Tho swastika and attributes of Nazism are present in every second picture. - said the lawyer of the journalist Ivan Klovkin - And there are no complaints about the organizers of the exposition. Perhaps this is due to the fact that its organizer is a military-historical society created with the direct participation of Vladimir Putin.

The lawyer believes that the decision of the Smolensk Regional Court is a dangerous persecution of anyone who publishes archival photos of the war.