Two men have been arrested for hanging an anti-war banner reading “f**k the war” from a building in Saint Petersburg, the former Leningrad, in Russia.
A statement obtained from the press service of the Courts of Saint Petersburg on Wednesday, June 8, read: “The Dzerzhinsky District Court of St. Petersburg brought Dmitry Platon (homeless person) and Igor Kuznetsov to administrative responsibility for committing an offense under Article 20.2 of the Code of Administrative Offences of the Russian Federation.”
The statement added that the reason for their arrest had been for placing an “uprising poster with bad words” on 32 Vosstaniya Street in the city of Saint Petersburg, Russia’s cultural capital.
Igor Kuznetsov, an artist whose age was not reported, was given five days of detention after reportedly “admitting his guilt,” while the homeless man, Dmitry Platon, whose age was not reported either, was given 10 days of detention, according to the statement from the Saint Petersburg courts’ press service.
The press service released a censored image showing the black and white banner, but social media users have also shared uncensored versions showing the text on the banner, which reads “f**k the war” in Russian.
The incident was also reported by Russian state media, which did not report the contents of the banner’s message, merely stating that the pair had been arrested for hanging an obscene message from a building in the city.
We contacted Russian and Ukrainian officials for comment but had not received a reply at the time of writing.
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