President Vladimir Putin signed a law classifying the St. George ribbon as a symbol of military glory and imposing a sentence of up to five years in prison for its «public desecration.» The document is published on the website of legal information and has already entered into force.
According to the law, the St. George ribbon can only be used as part of events «dedicated to memorable dates in Russia», as well as in «military-patriotic and spiritual and moral education citizens.» Article 354.1 of the Criminal Code «Rehabilitation of Nazism» provides for five million rubles fine, five years of forced labor, or the same term in a colony as the maximum punishment for «defiling» symbols of military glory.
The bill was submitted to the State Duma by deputies from «United Russia» Andrei Turchak and Olga Zanko. When it was adopted in the second reading, Zanko called the St. George ribbon «a symbol of truth, justice, the fight against genocide and neo-Nazism.»
Desecration of the St. George ribbon, sabotage communities and a map of Russia without Crimea. What repressive laws did the State Duma discuss (and adopt) at the end of the year