20:06, 26 November 2025

A Sochi resident was convicted of repeatedly displaying banned symbols.

A Sochi court sentenced 54-year-old history teacher Irina Kostrova to eighteen months in a penal colony for repeatedly displaying prohibited symbols.

As reported by Kavkazsky Uzel, in early August 2024, the Sochi Central District Court fined Irina Kostrova 30,000 rubles for discrediting the army. Several social media posts prompted the report.

The retrial was prompted by one of the historical posters the teacher published on her Odnoklassniki page, the human rights project OVD-Info* reported today.

In August 2023, she added a Nazi propaganda poster to her album. It depicts a soldier standing on a tank with the letter V and holding a flag with a swastika. The poster reads "Victoria." The teacher accompanied the image with an explanation of how it was used in Nazi propaganda.

Security forces detained Kostrova two years later. They threatened her into signing a confession.

In court, the teacher retracted her testimony. In her final statement, she emphasized her negative attitude toward fascism and denied her guilt. "Not only do I not consider myself guilty, but I believe that my work as a historian makes a significant contribution to the history of our people. And those who work for the sake of ticking boxes against the achievements of our ancestors are even greater criminals," she was quoted as saying in the publication.

According to the case file on the website of the Central District Court in Sochi, Kostrova's case on charges of repeated propaganda or public display of Nazi paraphernalia or symbols was submitted for consideration on June 16, 2025, and the next hearing was scheduled today.

"Caucasian Knot" also reported that a court in Krasnodar fined animal rights activist Elena Nasedkina for discrediting the Russian armed forces. A denunciation of Nasedkina was written by a Z-blogger and city council member, who now threatened her with criminal prosecution.

We have updated the apps on Android and IOS! We would be grateful for criticism and ideas for development both in Google Play/App Store and on KU pages in social networks. Without installing a VPN, you can read us on Telegram (in Dagestan, Chechnya and Ingushetia - with VPN). Using a VPN, you can continue reading "Caucasian Knot" on the website as usual, and on social networks: Facebook**, Instagram**, "VKontakte", "Odnoklassniki" and X. You can watch the "Caucasian Knot" video on YouTube. Send messages to +49 157 72317856 on WhatsApp**, to the same number on Telegram, or write to @Caucasian_Knot.

* is included in the register of foreign agents.

** Meta (owner of Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp) is banned in Russia.

Translated automatically via Google translate from https://www.kavkaz-uzel.eu/articles/417547