Najib Gasanov, secretary of the KhMAO Regional Branch of the Libertarian Party of Russia, was convicted of Nazi symbols’ propaganda. According to the party's community in the social network, the police found it in the Countryballs meme, posted by Gasanov in 2014 on the wall of his account on vk.com. He told 7x7 that the court's decision said that he had admitted his guilt although he never did this.
Najib Gasanov received a summons to the Administration of the Ministry of Internal Affairs on August 27. It did not specify either the article, or the status in which he was summoned for questioning. The trial was on the next day, August 28. The resident of Nizhnevartovsk was accused of displaying prohibited attributes and symbolism (Part 1 of Article 20.3 of the Administrative Code of the Russian Federation).
Gasanov was taken for questioning in court directly from the police department. He did not have a lawyer, and, according to him, he was not assigned a counsel in court. Gasanov told 7x7 that the court's decision indicated that he had allegedly admitted his guilt and it had been a mitigator, although he invoked Article 51 of the Constitution and did not give evidence. According to him, nominal data in the court's decision are incorrect:
- In fact, I received a document that refers to my namesake. I am not going to challenge the court's decision, because there is nothing to challenge there: I do not accept the claim and actually believe that it is censorship and a violation of my constitutional rights. And the whole situation has arisen for the sake of statistics on the fight against extremism.
The court ordered Gasanov to pay a fine of 1 thousand rubles. The judge did not demand deleting the post displaying the swastika and confiscation of the computer.
The community of the Libertarian Party of Russia on vk.com says that it is all about the CountryBalls meme, posted in Gasanov's account in 2014. Gasanov's party associates believe that he was fined lawlessly, because the punishment for using Nazi symbols not for propaganda purposes was abolished in Russia in February of this year.