A Muscovite was fined for a picture depicting the desecration of objects of religious veneration

The court fined him 30 thousand rubles under Art. 5.26 Code of Administrative Offences.

On June 22, 2026, the magistrate of court district No. 317 of the Yaroslavl district of Moscow fined Artem Avilov 30 thousand rubles under Part 2 of Art. 5.26 Code of Administrative Offenses (deliberate public desecration of objects of religious veneration).

The court ruling has not yet been published, however, according to the press service of the Moscow courts, the reason was the publication on VKontakte of “a photo containing the desecration of objects of religious veneration.”

If we are talking about some kind of collage or similar image, then, from our point of view, posting such pictures with religious symbols online should not in itself be interpreted as desecration of objects of religious veneration, since the publication of collages does not imply any active actions with religious paraphernalia. We also note that the concept of “desecration” is not defined in any way in the legislation.

Let us note that Avilov was also fined 100 thousand rubles under Part 3 of Art. 6.21 of the Code of Administrative Offenses for “propaganda of non-traditional relationships,” and the Babushkinsky District Court has scheduled a hearing of his case under Part 1 of Art. 20.3 of the Administrative Code on displaying certain prohibited symbols.

Sources

• A resident of the capital was brought to administrative liability by the court for public desecration of objects of religious veneration and LGBT* propaganda // Courts of general jurisdiction of the city of Moscow. Telegram. 2026. June 26.
• Administrative violation case file No. 05-0632/317/2026 // Magistrates of Moscow. 2026. June 23.
• Card of the case of administrative offense No. 05-0631/317/2026 // Magistrates of Moscow. 2026. June 23.
• Administrative violation case file No. 05-0370/2026 // Courts of general jurisdiction of Moscow. 2026. June 17.