The Petrogradsky Court of St. Petersburg fined a lecturer of the finance department at one of the city's universities, Lika Dyachkina, three times for protocols on demonstrating extremist symbols. She placed portraits of Alexei Navalny at the Solovetsky Stone in the city center, reported the press service of the city courts.
The portraits, printed on A4 sheets, were placed at the stone on October 4, 9, and 17. «Dyachkina placed A4 sheets with a portrait at the Solovetsky Stone. The sheets said that Lesha is her hero, her president, he is in our hearts, and also about «We will not forget! We will not forgive!»,» the message notes. Thus, according to the court, she «performed public actions aimed at demonstrating the attributes and symbols of extremist organizations».
The court fined Dyachkina 2 thousand rubles for each of the protocols, she disagreed with the charges.
The legislation does not provide for the recognition of photographs of other people as extremist symbols, even if they are accused of extremism. However, Russian courts interpret the legislation in their own way.
In February of this year, a court in Krasnodar arrested local resident Sergey Albov for two days for posting leaflets with Navalny's portrait. In April, a court in Ulyanovsk fined the author of the Telegram channel «Simbirsky Shugozhor» Vitaly Akhmerov two thousand rubles for two posts mentioning the politician's name. In March, a resident of Murmansk, Victoria Nagornykh, was arrested several times for demonstrating a poster with Navalny.
* Listed as a «terrorist and extremist».