Translated material
"The Kafkian absurdity surpassed." Two things for the burned flag with the letter Z
In St. Petersburg against Stanislav Semenyuk, a criminal case was opened on abuse of the state flag of Russia. He is accused of disrupting the Russian tricolor on which he was drawn by Z, and then set fire to him. It is unclear from the case at what point the flag with the Latin letter became a statevil. In addition to the criminal case, administrative was also instituted for discrediting the army, or rather, for the burning of the flag. Stanislav Semenyuk told the North. Real to the correspondent, why he could not look at the flag with Z on Victory Day and does not regret what he did.
Stanislav Semenyuk is 33 years old. In January 2021, he worked as an artist in the Moscow Philharmonic. January 31, on the day of mass protests in support of the politician Alexei Navalny, he projected the inscription "Freedom to political prisoners" on the wall of the Philharmonic. He added her to standard advertising information that you can buy tickets at the box office and on the institution’s website.
Semenyuk was immediately removed from work and reprimanded. The leadership considered that Stanislav violated the rules of official ethics and job descriptions. Almost none of his colleagues supported him. Three days later, the reflector quit on his own.
After dismissal, Stanislav became, as he says, "self -employed." He participated in the production of several performances, filming films and advertisements. A month ago he returned from Moscow to his native Petersburg - to look for a job.
He went to his friends to his friends to his friends. In the evening on the eve of May 9, he saw that on one of the streets there was three flags - a red banner, a Russian flag and another tricolor, on which the letter Z was applied in the form of a St. George ribbon.
-I used to feel negative feelings when I saw this Z. The use of this symbolism in a city like St. Petersburg, in a city that was in a blockade not so long ago, is indifference to universal values. For me, this is a symbol of limp worship of destruction and death. This cheers-patriotism is not at all close to me, it seems to me short-sighted. All these people, corrupted by war, violence, sooner or later they will return to our cities and villages, will look for work here, interact with us. They will feel the abnormal syndrome familiar to all alcoholics and drug addicts, and will try to project their attitude towards people in the sovereign state Ukraine in their apartments, in stores, in the subway, anywhere, ”says Stanislav.
What does the letter z mean
The letter Z has become a symbol of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. It does not have official status, but everywhere is used by both the authorities and ordinary people who support the war with Ukraine. Against the Russians who advocate the end of the war, they initiate administrative and criminal cases of "military fakes".
Stanislav came home to his friends, went to bed, but then he woke up in the middle of the night and realized that he could not allow such a flag to hang hanging on Victory Day. He took a scorch, went to the flagpole, took off the flag and set it on fire.
- This Z cannot be associated with Victory Day on May 9, 1945, in which not only the no longer existing USSR, but also other allies were invested. Including my grandmother, who was a child of the besieged Leningrad. For me, these are all bad associations. As if we did not finish the Second World War, as if we were not on the same front with other countries that helped us. As if we were continuing this war right now. Here are such chaotic thoughts visited me. I burned him for one simple reason - I did not want them to have the opportunity to hang him again, ”explains Semenyuk.
Stanislav’s grandmother was three years old when she was evacuated from Leningrad with her mother and grandmother. They lived in the area of the Obvodny Canal, the father of the family went to the front. When the bombing began, they took a cow and three generations of women went to the Baltic states on foot. For some time they lived in the territory of the occupied Novgorod Kremlin.
- Grandmother said that they watered wounded soldiers lying on ravines abandoned by the Soviet authorities. Picked up with milk from under that very cow. We got to Estonia. And there they lived for a long time about one of the concentration camps. They experienced all the hardships of the war. Then they returned to Leningrad. My father was born there, ”says Stanislav.
Semenyuk was detained on the morning of May 10 in a summer cottage village. A fabric message came from a 62-year-old man, they stated at the Ministry of Internal Affairs. Stanislav was taken to the police department with the words "this is not for long."
-I realized that I was somewhere in terms of conspiracy. They quickly found my person. We tried to press a little. They said that I do not like Russians, Russia. But I took the 51st article of the Constitution [allows not to testify against myself]. The main fear was for what happened outside. I did not know what happened to my parents - whether they had searches, what personal information could leave. I am very grateful to them that they supported me and united with my friends.
The operatives told Stanislav that a criminal case was instituted against him under Art. 329 of the Criminal Code - abuse of the state flag. The maximum punishment is up to a year of imprisonment. Semenyuk spent two days in a temporary detention center: there were six people in the trifle chamber. On the morning of May 12, he was released by the appeal.
After staying in the IvS, Stanislav decided that, regardless of whether he would remain free or not, he would launch the Yoga in Prisons project.
- There is such a project in India. There in places of imprisonment, almost everywhere, there are yoga lessons. This is also necessary in Russia - the shcs are hard, the mattresses are thin, cold. And work with your body allows you to communicate with operas and investigators, to maintain calm and a sense of its integrity, ”Stanislav explains.
After Semenyuk was released from the IVS, an administrative protocol was also drawn up for him - about the discrediting of the army. The protocol says that Z is "a patriotic symbol that is generally accepted and affordable for understanding Russians, directly identified as a symbol of support for the Russian Armed Forces." And the fact that Semenyuk burned him reflects his attitude to the "special operation to protect the LPR and the DPR." The police considered that Stanislav deliberately undermined the trust and image of the Russian military and discredited the goals and objectives of the use of the army during the "special operation". At the same time, at the end of the protocol it is written that these actions do not "contain a criminal act." The trial court has not yet been appointed.
- I asked - this is a continuation or branching of this case into two violations, because it turns out that a criminal case is about a tricolor, and the administrative case - about the letter Z. The investigator answered me that it was like parallel cases. The first, together with my telephone, went to the prosecutor's office. And it is unclear what they are bursting there, since the opera with me talked with an Ashnik on the phone and sent him screenshots from personal correspondence. And another person is conducting an administrative case, ”said Stanislav.
Lawyer Sergei Podolsky explained to the north. Reali that it is impossible to punish Stanislav Semenyuk under a criminal article and administrative at the same time, since a double punishment for the same thing is prohibited by the Constitution.
- Now the criminal case is in the prosecutor's office, we are waiting for whether it will stand or not. It can simply be canceled [a decision on initiating a case], this happens. If the prosecutor’s office is exciting, then the administrative protocol is subject to the termination of the police themselves. And then they will open a case under a criminal article. Excitation in both articles is excluded, ”the lawyer explains.
Stanislav Semenyuk says that he does not regret that he set fire to the flag.
- I regret that I was not so neat. And about the fact itself - no. Because it raises a lot of questions to everything that happens. If any element of the design of a distant summer cottage village raised such a wave, such a rustle, it raises questions. It is imputed to me that I defiled the state flag. And his description is given in the Constitution, even if the last so perverted and raped version. Without the letter Z. It seems to me that we have reached or even surpassed the Kafkian absurdity.