On June 6, the St. Petersburg City Court released Nikolai Trofimov, who was being persecuted for splattering the Victory Banner with black paint, from custody to house arrest. This was reported by the project "Support for Political Prisoners. Memorial".
Trofimov is prohibited from communicating with witnesses in the case and from using the Internet.
The incident occurred on May 4 and was caught on surveillance cameras; an unknown person approached the canvas and sprayed paint from a syringe. Local media also reported on Russian tricolors being damaged in the same way. On May 11, police detained Trofimov, and on May 13, the Primorsky District Court of St. Petersburg remanded him in custody until July 4 under articles on the rehabilitation of Nazism (Part 3 of Article 354.1 of the Criminal Code) and desecration of the flag (Article 329 of the Criminal Code).
- 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.