In Syktyvkar, artist Dmitry Makhov, who was previously the head of the local branch of the «City Projects». Katarina Nezloba, who together with Makhov organized the creative association ÖBBÖ, told Mediazona about this.
The police took away Dmitry Makhov along with the animal. Nezloba said that she was later able to pick up Tom’s dog from the police: “She’s fine, I came as quickly as I could and took her, she’s already home.”
The Syktyvkar resident is being left overnight in a special detention center, and tomorrow he is scheduled to have a court hearing, human rights activist Igor Sazhin clarified to Mediazona. The police are going to draw up a protocol against Makhov for displaying prohibited symbols because of his avatar on VKontakte with a white-red-white flag (Article 20.3 of the Administrative Code).
Formally, Russian courts have not previously made decisions to include the white-red-white flag in the register of prohibited materials or to ban any Belarusian opposition organization using the flag.
According to Sazhin, the police cited a similar case because of the cover of a student card with white-red-white flag. In October 2023, an 18-year-old MIET student was sentenced to five days of arrest because of her.
The court ruling stated that the flag is the symbolism of the Kastus Kalinovsky regiment fighting on the side of Ukraine, which became a “branch” of the “Freedom of Russia” legion. In March 2023, the Russian Supreme Court recognized the legion as a terrorist organization.