Yeletsky activist was arrested for a picture with Putin in makeup

For publishing a picture of Putin with painted lips, Gennady Makarov was arrested for five days.

On June 1, 2017, the Yelets City Court found activist Gennady Makarov guilty of an offense under Art. 20.29 of the Code of Administrative Offenses (mass distribution of extremist materials) and sentenced him to five days of arrest.

Makarov himself, after serving his arrest, said that he was accused of publishing on the social network VKontakte and on LiveJournal an image of Vladimir Putin in makeup. The post on the pages of Makarov was dedicated to the recognition of this picture as extremist. The publication cited the relevant item on the Federal List of Extremist Materials and criticized the court's decision, while the banned image caption was cropped.

The case was initiated based on materials from the Center for Combating Extremism of the Ministry of Internal Affairs for the Lipetsk Region. At the same time, the activist links the persecution with his civic activism and, in particular, with the conflict with the chief of the city's police. He intends to appeal the court's decision.

We believe that, although there is reason to believe that Makarov sympathizes with right-wing radicals, in this case he was wrongfully prosecuted, since the very ban on images with Putin is wrongful.

Sources

• Yelets human rights activist received five days of administrative arrest // City48. 2017. June 1.
• Case card No. 5-153/2017 // Website of the Yelets City Court. 2017. June 14.
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  Based on social media.