Residents of Orenburg were arrested for picketing with a white-blue-white flag on their phones

Two residents of Orenburg were arrested for violating the law on rallies for a picket with a white-blue-white flag on a smartphone. This is reported by Idel.Realii.

One activist was given five days of arrest for non-observance of the rules of organizing a picket, the other – 15 days for repeatedly violating the law on rallies.

According to the court’s decision, Orenburg citizens held a picket in front of the regional government building at four in the morning, “using a means of visual agitation – a mobile phone with the image of a white-blue-white flag.”

At the trial, the accused explained that they discussed the situation in the country over bottles of whiskey, after which they decided to go to the square – “they did not shout any slogans, they stood silently.” They told the police that they were protesting against the war in Ukraine.

The court excluded the dissemination of information about the war from the sentence, since only the police heard it: early in the morning there was no one else on the square.

• The white-blue-white flag is used to demonstrate an anti-war position and is presented by the Russian opposition as a symbol of “Russia of the future”. In March, a member of the State Duma demanded that he be recognized as an extremist. In September, a race with this flag was considered “discrediting the Russian army” – the runner Konstantin Gudymov was fined 30 thousand rubles.