Swastika and linden

We bring to the attention of readers an article by Alexander Verkhovsky, published on the Grani.ru website.

The "Central Children's Store" opened a criminal case for the sale of soldiers and busts of historical characters in the German form of the Second World War, including Nazi symbols. Is it possible to consider such an exposition as propaganda? I would hesitate to answer. We can say that children do not need to sell it, rather these toys are suitable for collectors. But there is definitely no corpus delicti in this, hostility has not been raised against any group of people. I think the case will be closed the same way it was opened.

Nazi symbols have recently attracted increased attention from law enforcement agencies. To Article 20.3 of the Code of Administrative Offenses, which punished for the demonstration of Nazi symbols and officially registered symbols of banned organizations, they added the symbols of organizations that collaborated with the Germans during the war or deny the decision of the Nuremberg Tribunal. In this case, the list of organizations should be compiled by the government. This is a unique case: the amendment has no direct effect. True, the government has not yet compiled this list.

And the old composition of the article is applied, and the cases are anecdotal. The most surprising case is a fine for a photo of the Smolensk courtyard during the Nazi occupation. According to the letter of the law, the Smolensk journalist, unfortunately, violated the Code of Administrative Offenses. It is worded in such a way that the purpose of displaying the symbolism is irrelevant, which is absurd. This norm cannot be fully applied, because then there will not be a single film about the war, and it is applied selectively.

Last year, people tried to challenge this provision of the law in the Constitutional Court, but the Constitutional Court refused to consider the case, writing that the demonstration of Nazi symbols "regardless of its genesis" could be offensive to veterans and therefore unacceptable. Although there is no point in this, because in the latter case it was about representatives of the eastern religious movement Falun Gong, on the emblem of which there is a sign that resembles a Nazi swastika, but twisted in the opposite direction. Probably, as in many religions, this is a solar symbol, but in any case, this emblem has nothing, even the most remote relation to European fascism.

The issue of applying Article 20.3 of the Code of Administrative Offenses has been discussed for more than a year. It would be enough to write that the demonstration of Nazi symbols for propaganda purposes is prohibited - and let the courts sort out in each case whether there was propaganda. Moreover, in the second part of the same article, which is devoted to the trade in items with Nazi symbols, these words are. It's just that the first part is worded inaccurately.

I must say that in Germany there is also a complete ban on Nazi symbols. There was a high-profile case when an anti-fascist was fined for a well-known pictogram depicting a man throwing a swastika into a trash can. The case went to the Supreme Court, and the Supreme Court has already ruled that this image is not propaganda. There may have been other cases of similar persecution, but this story changed the practice.

In Russia, the intensification of the fight against swastikas and the protection of the feelings of veterans is a side effect of the propaganda campaign. There is a mobilization to fight the enemy in the West, in Ukraine, where, as you know, the "fascist junta" rules. Although the description of the enemy over time is less and less reduced to fascism, but the victory in the Great Patriotic War has been a key element of the patriotic worldview since about the sixties, and every opportunity is used to update this memory. True, this is important for television, and, say, the Kaliningrad case of hanging the German flag, which actively exploits the theme of the war and offended veterans, is not covered on TV and is not propaganda. Rather, this and many other cases with direct or indirect reference to the topic of fascism are the result of a common campaign. Law enforcement agencies do not live in a vacuum. In addition, they need to fight extremism and report on it. And starting administrative cases under 20.3 is much easier than criminal ones. You don’t need to do anything at all: I found a photo - I handed it over to the court.

This is how a large amount of fake wrestling is produced, which no one tries to correct. I would understand if there was a clear goal to put pressure on the opposition in this way. But if the case about the flag is still related to opposition activism, then the case about the photo of the Smolensk courtyard has nothing to do with it. Therefore, what is happening, at least in large part, can be called an imitation of the fight against the opposition.