On Wednesday, February 9, the Tverskoy District Court appointed feminist activist and poet Darya Serenko 15 days of administrative arrest, finding her guilty of displaying prohibited symbols (Article 20.3 of the Code of Administrative Offenses). The court recognized the logo of the Smart Voting project of politician Alexei Navalny (an exclamation mark in the voting box on the ballot), which, according to lawyers, is not even extremist, was recognized by the court as “forbidden symbols”. The day before, a similar decision under the same administrative article was made against Pussy Riot member Maria Alyokhina, as well as Alexander Rybkin, an activist of the unregistered Other Russia party (there was no connection with Navalny in their cases). A Novaya Gazeta correspondent tried to figure out what caused the surge of such accusations.
Photo: RIA Novosti
On Tuesday, February 8, the Tverskoy District Court of Moscow arrested Pussy Riot member Maria Alekhina for 15 days because of a seven-year-old Instagram post. The girl was detained the day before after visiting the inspection of the Federal Penitentiary Service, where she was registered at the request of punishment for the “sanitary case” — in September Alyokhina was sentenced to a year of restriction of freedom because of the post about the rally on January 23.
The reason for the arrest was a photograph posted on a social network in 2015. The security forces saw a violation of Part 1 of Art. 20.3 of the Code of Administrative Offenses (“Demonstration of Nazi symbols”). The photo shows three girls in hijabs, at the bottom of the picture there is an inscription — presumably Arabic script. According to the police, two swastikas were depicted along the edges of the inscription.
I do not agree with Alyokhina's accusations. At the trial, the activist noted that «she devoted half her life to the anti-fascist movement.» As Veronika Polyakova, Alyokhina's lawyer from Apology, explains, there are serious violations in the girl's case:
- firstly, the statute of limitations for bringing to administrative responsibility has passed — according to Polyakova, the post of 2015 cannot be a reason for prosecution, and offenses on the Internet are “continuing offenses” (the statute of limitations under Article 20.3 of the Code of Administrative Offenses is 3 months);
- secondly, the post did not contain any propaganda of Nazi or other prohibited ideology, which, in turn, cannot constitute an administrative offense under Article 20.3 of the Code of Administrative Offenses (according to Alyokhina, the image was not a swastika, and Hindu symbols. — Ed.);
- thirdly, the lawyer argues that the protocol was based on an act of research by a specialist who does not have the proper qualifications and is not warned of responsibility, as required by law.
At the same time, this is not the first charge for the activist under Article 20.3 of the Code of Administrative Offenses; in December last year, the girl was already serving 15 days of administrative arrest after a similar process. Alyokhina then reported that she was charged with publishing a picture with Alexander Lukashenko from 2015 on Instagram, which depicts symbols similar to a swastika. Together with her, the municipal deputy of the Basmanny districtLyusya Stein was arrested for 14 days, the reason was a picture of 2018 with a photograph of Lucy in a cap with symbols and the signature «Lyusya Stein is a fascist deputy» (spelling preserved).
For Maria Alyokhina, the second administrative offense under Article 20.3 of the Code of Administrative Offenses may become a reason for the Federal Penitentiary Service to replace her sentence under the “sanitary case” with a real term.
According to Polyakova, the article itself does not create the risk of initiating a criminal case, but, of course, can be used as data characterizing Alyokhina. The court ruling will be included in the personal file of the penitentiary inspectorate, where Alekhina is registered in the “sanitary case”.
Maria Alekhina in the hall trial with a lawyer. Photo: press service of the Tver Court
At the same time, Alyokhina and Stein are far from the only ones who have been prosecuted under the article on the display of prohibited symbols in recent times. In Moscow, this article is being applied to activists more and more often.
An article for the swastika for Moscow activists
According to Stanislav Seleznev, a lawyer for the Network Freedoms project, Article 20.3 of the Code of Administrative Offenses (demonstration of prohibited symbols) is actually massive: thousands of protocols are issued under it every year. Previously, it was called the “article for the swastika” — in 2012, changes were made to the norm, due to which any demonstration of prohibited symbols was subject to punishment for a long time. One can recall a number of high-profile cases against people who posted archival photographs on social networks, up to pictures of soldiers holding the banners of defeated German regiments at a parade on Red Square in June 1945, the lawyer explains. At the same time, there is no single register of prohibited symbols in Russia, the police turn to experts every time.
In 2020, after the appeal of the European Court of Human Rights, the article was changed. Now the police need to take into account the context: if the published information forms a negative attitude towards the ideology of “Nazism and extremism” and there are no signs of propaganda or justification of this ideology in it, they cannot be charged. According to Seleznev, after that, the practice of applying Article 20.3 of the Code of Administrative Offenses began to decline, but still remains popular.
Like Alyokhina, on February 8, the Tverskoy District Court arrested Other Russia activistAlexander Rybkin for 15 days because of a tattoo with the logo of the British darkfolk band Death in June and a rune from the Scandinavian futhark Algiz.
According to Apology, the reason for initiating the administrative case was Rybkin’s photograph on the VKontakte social network — experts identified the tattoo on his arm as the “Nazi rune Algiz.” The rune was indeed appropriated by the Nazis in Germany in the middle of the twentieth century, it was used as a «symbol of life» in the emblems of various organizations. In turn, Death in June indeed often resort to the use of elements of the symbols of the Third Reich, but the members of the group deny any connection with neo-Nazi ideology. Moreover, the founder of the group, Douglas Pierce, comes from the milieu of antifa activists.
At the same time, Rybkin was detained on the eve of the trial literally at the exit from Sakharovo, where he had already served 15 days under a protocol under a similar article, but already because of the demonstration of the logo of the unregistered party “The Other Russia E.V. Limonov» in the video.
A similar story happened to Olga Shalina, the head of the Moscow branch of The Other Russia: the activist was sentenced twice to 15 days of administrative arrest this winter. First, under the article on failure to comply with the requirements of the police (Article 19.3 of the Code of Administrative Offenses), then for the demonstration of prohibited symbols.
— The National Bolshevik Party (NBP) was one of the first in Russia to be recognized as extremist. Now its symbolism is not used anywhere. The National Bolsheviks are charged with connection with the organization «The Other Russia of Eduard Limonov» — it has never been recognized as extremist. However, they constantly try to connect the Other Russia grenade and lightning with the NBP. Although, according to such arguments of the expert, all electricians who use a skull with lightning to indicate high voltage can be recognized as extremists, Seleznev says.
15 days for an exclamation mark
Violation of article 20.3 of the Code of Administrative Offenses on February 8 was also presented to the feminist activist Daria Serenko. She, along with LPR press secretary Nadya Eva, was summoned to the police department last Thursday, February 3, due to administrative offenses unknown at that time. On February 4, the police tried to get into Serenko's apartment, and on the afternoon of February 8, the girl was taken to the Tverskoy police department directly from the cafe.
What exactly the fem-activist is charged with became known only closer to Tuesday night. As human rights activist Pavel Chikov reported on his Telegram channel, Serenko was detained for posting a photo on Instagram last year with the symbols of “Smart Voting” of politician Alexei Navalny — an exclamation mark in the voting box (the police thought it was the logo of the organization “Navalny Headquarters”*). In the post, the girl told why you should not vote for the United Russia candidate Tatyana Butskaya in the Duma elections.
Daria Serenko at the courthouse. Photo: Elizaveta Orlovskaya/DOXA
On Wednesday, February 9, the Tverskoy District Court of Moscow arrested Daria Serenko for 15 days. According to her lawyer Pyotr Khromov, the defense attached medical documents to the case stating that Serenko was suffering from otitis media. Judge Panova refused to grant most of the defense motions, agreeing only to the interrogation of Inspector Elena Tsymbalova, who drew up a protocol.
According to lawyer Pyotr Khromov,
no symbolism is described in the judgment of the Moscow City Court on recognizing organizations associated with Alexei Navalny as extremist.
At the same time, even if we imagine that the exclamation mark in a white square is indeed now a prohibited symbol, another symbol was presented in the photo from Daria Serenko's profile — the Smart Voting logo. However, according to the conclusion of the specialist, this sign is actually the same as that of Navalny's headquarters.
In addition, the lawyer insists that judicial practice allows us to consider that Serenko’s offense has already expired (in some cases they are counted from the moment of publication), and the court in its decision resorted to too severe punishment.
As Stanislav Seleznev adds, the same person, Daniil Mikheev, is an expert in the cases of Serenko, Alyokhina, the National Bolsheviks and other activists, on whom they tried to draw up a protocol from Navalny's symbols. According to Seleznev, Mikheev lives in Solnechnogorsk and just graduated from university last year. His main specialty is conflictology.
Mikheev was already preparing an opinion in administrative cases because of photographs with the letter “H”, a red exclamation point and a red dot. At the same time, at least in Krasnoyarsk and Voronezh, the court overturned such decisions.
The next detainee under Article 20.3 could potentially be the press secretary of the LPR Nadya Eva: she and Daria Serenko were scheduled to appear at the police department at the same time on February 7, and the numbers of applications for which record keeping was started go almost one after another (No. 114272 and No. 114274).
“There is still no complete certainty [that the girl was summoned to the department because of an offense under Article 20.3 of the Code of Administrative Offenses],” Nadia Eva clarifies. — My lawyer was not told the reason on the day I received the notification. On February 7, the lawyer filed a notice that I was in covid quarantine and could not appear [at the police department]. We still do not know the article.