Russia arrests U.S.-Russian dual national, charges him with ‘rehabilitating Nazism’ over social media posts

A St. Petersburg court has arrested U.S.-Russian dual national Yuri Malev on charges of “rehabilitating Nazism.”

The charges stem from two images Malev published on a social networking site. According to the investigation, the first image showed the St. George’s ribbon (a symbol of pride in the Russian military) with an “obscene” caption. The court described the post as “an identifying symbol for a person with a non-traditional sexual orientation, along with obscene words describing said person.” The second post allegedly showed “a photo of a corpse captioned, ‘How to wear the St. George’s ribbon properly.’”

The court’s statement said Malev had “partially admitted guilt.”

According to the Telegram channel SOTAvision, Yuri Malev is a graduate of St. Petersburg State University’s law department and has been living in the U.S. since 1991. The Telegram channel Baza reported that Malev went to Russia at the end of November.