Because of a meme featuring the frog character Pepe and a photo of Clara Zetkin and Rosa Luxemburg, a court in Novgorod Region fined Georgy Rezankov under the article on displaying extremist symbols (Part 1, Article 20.3 of the Code of Administrative Offences). The case card of the ruling was discovered by Verstka.
The neighbourhood police officer who drew up the protocol found the saved images on Georgy Rezankov’s VKontakte account. He stated that the photos included “the symbol of the international social movement LGBT.”
The court decision notes that one image features “an anthropomorphic frog from comics, wearing a six-coloured wig,” and the other is a “historical photograph” of Zetkin and Luxemburg with a six-colour flag depicted.
The Novgorod Region resident told the court that the Pepe meme “has nothing to do with LGBT.” He added that the photo of Zetkin and Luxemburg “also does not indicate LGBT propaganda, although some researchers believe they were in a close relationship and lived together.”
The argument that Rezankov had posted the images in 2020, when the “LGBT movement” had not yet been declared extremist in Russia, was not accepted by the judge. She stated that the man had committed an ongoing offence and should have “brought his page into compliance with the law.” The court fined Georgy Rezankov 1,500 rubles (approx. US$16).
As Verstka points out, there were also errors in the court’s ruling. The German feminist activists, instead of being named Zetkin and Luxemburg, became “Tsentkin” and “Lyuksinbur.” When listing the colours of the rainbow flag, the last colour, violet, was replaced a second time with orange.
Asya Sokolova for OVD-Info
The adoption of the “LGBT propaganda” law marked not only widespread censorship but also intensified repression against LGBTQ people and the organisations that support them. With the designation of the “International LGBT Movement” as an “extremist organisation,” this pressure has increased once again.
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