The case on the rehabilitation of Nazism (Part 4 of Article 354.1 of the Criminal Code) against Tula resident Sergei Sosov was sent to court. this The prosecutor's office of the Tula region reports .
In June 2021, Sosov used Photoshop to attach a portrait of Adolf Hitler to a photo with members of the Immortal Regiment and published it on VKontakte. The security forces became interested in the post only two years later. During a search of the man's house, all equipment was confiscated.
According to SOVA , Sosov was previously arrested three times under the article on displaying prohibited symbols (Part 1 of Article 20.3 of the Administrative Code) - twice because of publications containing Nazi symbols, and once because of the symbols of Alexei Navalny’s structures. In the spring of 2021, he was fined under the article on desecration of objects of religious veneration (Part 2 of Article 5.26 of the Administrative Code) because of a collage with icons.
- According to the SOVA Research Center, many cases under Article 354.1 of the Criminal Code are initiated unlawfully and should be classified under other articles of the Criminal Code or resolved within the framework of civil rather than criminal proceedings.
- In 2022, experts recognized 20 sentences under this article against 23 people as unfounded. Some of the decisions in such cases concern attempts to upload photographs of figures of the Third Reich and famous collaborators, sometimes under other names, to the websites of the Immortal Regiment movement or the associated Memory Bank project on the eve of May 9. Eight such sentences were handed down last year.
- “Immortal Regiment” is a movement that has been holding memorial events in honor of May 9 since 2012. Traditionally, these are processions with portraits of participants in the Great Patriotic War. In 2020, due to the coronavirus, the event began to be held online. To participate in it, portraits of veterans were uploaded to the Memory Bank website.