A Russian Orthodox priest has been arrested in St. Petersburg over a 2014 photograph showing him holding a Ukrainian flag with the country’s trident symbol, Fontanka reports, citing the unified press service for St. Petersburg’s courts.
Nikolai Savchenko had posted the photo on his profile on the Russian social media site VKontakte, alongside a Bible quote: “Thus saith the Lord, Ye shall not go up, nor fight against your brethren (1 Kings 12:24).”
Savchenko says he was detained directly at his church. He was charged with displaying banned symbols after the court ruled that the trident on the flag constituted the insignia of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists, which the Russian Supreme Court declared extremist in September 2022.
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