In the Murmansk region, an anarchist was fined for publishing Nazi symbols on a social network

On May 18, 2017, the Apatity City Court fined a local resident, Sergei Khozyainov, 1,200 rubles for publicly displaying Nazi symbols (under Part 1 of Article 20.3 of the Code of Administrative Offenses). This was stated on May 30 in a message from the Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia for the Murmansk Region and on the website of the Apatity Court.

According to the Information and Analytical Center “Sova”, Sergey Khozyainov, brought to administrative responsibility, did not deny the publication of the symbols on his page, however, he stated that he was not aware that it was prohibited.

The SOVA Center considers the persecution of Khozyainov unlawful. According to the researchers, the content of Khozyainov's page on the social network VKontakte suggests that he adheres to anarchist views. In this regard, the SOVA Center concludes that it is extremely unlikely that Khozyainov posted Nazi symbols on his page in order to promote this ideology. Unfortunately, in Russia, displaying prohibited symbols is often punished without considering the context.