The ECHR will check the punishment for demonstrating the swastika in Russia

Lawyers of the Human Rights Organization of Agora asked the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) to evaluate the application of articles in Russia on punishment for demonstrating Nazi symbols. About this writes "Kommersant".

Agora sent two complaints to the court of administrative arrest for publishing pictures with a swastika on the social network. According to lawyers, the courts do not take into account the context and find those who did not plan to justify the Nazis guilty.

“Until 2014, Article 20.3 suggested punishment not just for demonstrating Nazi symbols, but for the purpose of propaganda. In 2014, changes were amended, and in the end it turned out that the responsibility was generating both propaganda and demonstration without the purpose of propaganda, ”the lawyer of Agora, Alexei Glukhov, explained to the newspaper.

According to Glukhov, the number of the Code of Code of Administrative Offenses of the Code of Code of Administrative Offenses in recent years has grown 3.5 times - from 480 to 1.8 thousand. The lawyer recalled that there is no absolute ban in Russia for a demonstration of swastika: on federal channels, films are shown about the Great Patriotic War, there are books with photographs of the war years in libraries.

“Even in the media you can publish a swastika if there is no propaganda goal, Roskomnadzor officially explained in 2015. The ban is established only for individuals. In kindergarten, I painted tanks for Victory Day - with red stars and with a swastika. They won with asterisk. If I now publish this drawing on the social network, then at best I will get off with a fine, ”says Glukhov.

As the head of the SOVA information and analytical center Alexander Verkhovsky said to Kommersant, Article 20.3 of the Code of Administrative Offenses in 2014 “corrected the most non-coherent way”. He explained that in 1995 the law “On perpetuating the victory of the Soviet people in the Second World War” was adopted, which directly prohibits the demonstration by the Nazi symbolism, but the context does not indicate.

Also, the context, according to Verkhovsky, is not in the Code of Administrative Offenses, which is wrong: "A person can also place a historical photograph, or can use the same swastika as an element of political polemic, drawing it on the forehead of an unloved politician." According to the head of the Owl, and the Code of Administrative Offenses, and the 1995 law "we must, of course, correct."