Moscow college student given five-day sentence for Belarusian opposition flag on student ID cover, fined for pro-Ukraine statements
Daniil Voitovich, a student at the Moscow National Research University of Electronic Technology (MIET), has been arrested for having a white-red-white flag on his student ID cover. The Zelenograd District Court of Moscow found him guilty of displaying prohibited symbolism and gave him a five-day administrative detention.
The court also fined Voitovich 35,000 rubles (about $370) under the article on “discrediting” the Russian army for allegedly saying, “The citizens of the Russian Federation and the government of the Russian Federation are fascists, unlike the citizens of Ukraine,” and “Glory to Ukraine,” in the presence of students and a teacher.
According to the court, the white-red-white flag is a symbol of the Kastus Kalinouski battalion, which, the decision states, is a Freedom of Russia Legion “branch on the territory of the Republic of Belarus.”
The 18-year-old student was reported to authorities by Farid Abdullin, a university employee “responsible for mobilization preparation,” according to the Telegram channel Ostorozhno, Novosti.
Kastus Kalinouski
One of the leaders of the January Uprising against the Russian Empire on the lands of the former Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth (1863–1864). A significant number of Belarusian citizens consider Kastus Kalinouski a national hero. Currently, his name is borne by a regiment of Belarusian volunteers fighting against Russia on the side of Ukraine.
The Freedom of Russia Legion
A Ukrainian Armed Forces unit said to consist of volunteers from Russia. The exact number of people in it is unknown. In March 2023, the Russian Supreme Court declared the legion a “terrorist organization.”
White-Red-White Flag
The Belarusian opposition uses the national white-red-white flag — it served as the state flag from 1991 to 1995, until Alexander Lukashenko held a referendum and replaced it.