St. Petersburg Metro Passenger Arrested for Trident on Hat
The Leninsky District Court of St. Petersburg arrested a man spotted in the metro wearing clothing with symbols of Ukraine and the USA. The ruling was issued in an administrative case on displaying extremist symbolism.
Apr 27, 2026 0
The Ukrainian trident has been banned as Nazi symbolism in Russia since January 2024.
Source:
A report on the court decision appeared on February 4 in the official Telegram channel of the press service of St. Petersburg courts.
The reason for the proceedings was a photo posted on the VKontakte social network in late January. Employees of the Center for Countering Extremism noticed the image showing a man riding the metro in a blue hoodie with the flag of the USA and a hat with a Ukrainian trident.
Law enforcement determined that the trident on the headwear belongs to symbolism prohibited from public display. The detainee, Ruslan Faizullin, did not admit guilt. According to him, he did not know about the ban and bought the hat to emphasize his ethnic and cultural roots, without making any public statements or distributing anything.
The court brought Faizullin to administrative responsibility under Part 1 of Article 20.3 of the Code of Administrative Offenses of the Russian Federation. The penalty was 10 days of arrest, and the hat with the trident was confiscated.
Since January 2024, the Trident of Prince Vladimir (depicted on the coat of arms of Ukraine), as well as the symbolism of the organizations OUN (Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists), UPA (Ukrainian Insurgent Army), UNS (Ukrainian National Self-Defense), and UNRA (Ukrainian National Revolutionary Army) have been included in the list of Nazi organizations, and their public use is prohibited.
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