A resident of Priangaria who tore down the Russian flag was sentenced to 4 years in prison

In the Irkutsk Region, a military court sentenced local resident Alexander Skvortsov to 4 years in a general regime colony, finding him guilty of desecrating the state flag, rehabilitating Nazism, and promoting terrorism.

According to the investigation, Alexander Skvortsov in the premises of the sports school of the Olympic Reserve stole the Russian flag from the wall, crumpled it and threw it into the shoe compartment in the closet.

Skvortsova was also accused of posting comments “rehabilitating Nazism, containing public justification and propaganda of terrorism” in public telegram channels. What exactly Skvortsov wrote is not reported.

In addition to the prison term, the court banned Skvortsova from administering websites for three years.

• In 2014, the Russian authorities adopted amendments to the Criminal Code, providing for criminal responsibility for identifying the roles of Germany and the USSR, as well as for denying the facts recognized by the international military tribunal in Nuremberg. Human rights activists noted that the law will make it difficult to discuss events related to the Second World War, and will also lead to the appearance of unfair court sentences. The Russian authorities referred to the fact that laws against Holocaust denial apply in European countries.
• In June 2015, a court in Perm fined blogger Vladimir Luzgin 200,000 rubles. He quoted the article “15 facts about the people of Bandera, or what the Kremlin is silent about”, which said that “Communists and Germany jointly attacked Poland, unleashed the Second World War, that is, Communism and Nazism honestly cooperated.”
• The criminal article on the rehabilitation of Nazism is often an instrument of political persecution of critics of totalitarianism, Soviet repression and Stalin’s policies, as well as supporters of Ukraine. The number of people who are accused of rehabilitating Nazism in Russia is increasing every year.