Saratov journalist Vilkov was fined one thousand rubles for publishing a swastika on VKontakte.

The Volzhsky District Court of Saratov fined Sergei Vilkov, a journalist of the Public Opinion media group, 1 thousand rubles for publishing a swastika on his VKontakte page. Judge Yulia Efimkina found Vilkov guilty under Art. 20.3 of the Code of Administrative Offenses (propaganda or public display of Nazi paraphernalia or symbols), writes Versiya Saratov. In November 2011, Vilkov spoke on his social network page criticizing the decision of the Saratov authorities to sanction the “Russian March” and illustrated the post with a cartoon depicting the symbols of “United Russia” and a swastika. The publication notes that last week Roskomnadzor published an explanation in which it noted that displaying a swastika without propaganda purposes is not a violation of the law, but the Saratov court did not take this into account. As for Sergei Vilkov, after the initiation of the swastika case, he came under suspicion of committing another administrative offense: in March of this year, the journalist was summoned to the police for posting several pages from a book by an anti-Semitic writer on his VKontakte page to demonstrate the “delirium” of the ideas presented in the work. Vilkov was explained that he was suspected under Art. 20.29 Code of Administrative Offenses of the Russian Federation (distribution of extremist materials).