A university associate professor was detained in St. Petersburg. He had the flag of Ukraine on his avatar on social networks

Associate Professor of the St. Petersburg State University of Transport (PGUPS) Dmitry Burakov was detained on April 2 in St. Petersburg. In a conversation with Fontanka, he said that he did not know what the police were interested in, but his avatar on the social network VKontakte had a Ukrainian flag for several years.

Later the teacher changed the photo.

Burakov did not name the reason for the detention

The associate professor of PGUPS said that since 16:40 he has been in the 2nd police department of the Admiralteysky district of St. Petersburg.

The police did not comment on the teacher's arrest.

Burakov had a Ukrainian flag on his social media avatar

As Fontanka writes, since March 1, 2014, the assistant professor’s avatar on VKontakte had a photograph of a trident against the background of the Ukrainian flag. On his page, he published a portrait of USSR President Mikhail Gorbachev, an address by Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky, a poem about cosmonaut and State Duma deputy Valentina Tereshkova, and much more.

At the time of writing the news, Burakov’s avatar on the social network has a different photo – a cat with a book on mathematical analysis.

Previously, a Muscovite was punished for a blue and yellow flower embroidered by a child on her backpack.

In mid-March, a Moscow resident was punished for embroidering a blue and yellow flower on her backpack. According to the Simonovsky court, the woman showed metro passengers in a train carriage at the Shabolovskaya station “a flower called Forget-Me-Not, attached to the strap of her bag, which has the colors of the Ukrainian flag,” and thus expressed a negative attitude towards the special military operation. A report was drawn up against her for public actions aimed at discrediting the Russian Armed Forces.

The woman did not admit guilt and said that the flower was made by her child. The court imposed a fine on her, but could not name the exact amount. According to the administrative article on discrediting the Russian army, up to 50 thousand rubles could be recovered from the Russian woman.

A resident of Nizhny Novgorod was arrested for wearing rainbow earrings

In February, Nizhny Novgorod resident Anastasia Ershova was arrested for five days for wearing rainbow earrings under the article on “demonstration of prohibited symbols” (Part 1, Article 20.3 of the Administrative Code). The girl was handed over to the police by people who noticed the jewelry on her and filmed it. At the trial, the Russian woman explained that she has nothing to do with LGBT people (The international public movement LGBT is recognized as an extremist organization and is banned in Russia) and am not familiar with the symbolism of this movement, and the earrings are simple multi-colored jewelry.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said at the time that he was not aware of “the existence of any laws that ban rainbows in Russia.”