(NewsWorthy.news) – A man with dual Russian-U.S. citizenship has been convicted of “rehabilitating Nazism” by a court in St Petersburg over his posts on Russian social media.
Yuri Malev was handed a three-and-a-half year jail sentence in a minimum-security penal colony following his arrest in December 2023. Malev was taken into custody over images he posted on the social media platform Odnoklassniki that featured the Saint George’s ribbon, a symbol of Russian military pride.
According to court documents, one image showed the orange and black ribbon on a corpse with a caption stating it was how the ribbon should be worn “properly.” Malev was accused of humiliating the dignity and honor of Russian WWII veterans. The St. Petersburg City Court sentenced him after he confessed his guilt, the court’s press service stated. Malev worked as a security guard in Brooklyn at the Match Point sports complex.
The move follows numerous crackdowns on dissent on both sides of the political spectrum since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022. Laws have strictly prohibited the spreading of “false information” about the military, and those criticizing the Kremlin’s war effort have faced fines and jail time. President Vladimir Putin has made “denazification” central in his attempts to justify the invasion of Ukraine.
Even the U.S. Congress previously banned the provision of arms to the controversial ultra-nationalist Azov Battalion in 2018. Ukraine’s military has also raised eyebrows over allegedly appointing Dmytro Yarosh as an adviser. Yarosh is the former leader of Right Sector, another ultra-nationalist group inspired by the Ukrainian Insurgent Army, which fought against both Nazis and Soviets during WWII but was linked to war crimes.
Western commentators have dismissed the Kremlin’s denazification narrative due to Ukraine being led by a Jewish president and the presence of ultra-nationalists in Russian forces. Even former Wagner leader Yevgeny Prigozhin questioned whether neo-Nazis existed in Ukraine a few months before his untimely death in 2023.
Russia has for several years heavily censored criticism of its armed forces and their role in history; in 2021 Putin banned comparisons between the Nazis and the Soviets, highlighting the former-KGB agent’s nostalgia for the USSR and effectively rendering it illegal for Russians to criticize Soviet atrocities during WWII.
Russia has used charges of “rehabilitating Nazism” on those who, according to authorities, hold opposition views. Analysts suggested Moscow could have bargained with the U.S. with imprisoned Americans to gain access to Malev following rising tensions between the two nations.
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