A Russian court sentenced a dual US-Russian citizen to three-and-a-half years in prison on Wednesday for “rehabilitating Nazism.”
Yuri Malev was taken into custody in December following accusations of disrespecting the Saint George’s ribbon, a symbol representing Russian military courage, in his social media posts.
According to the independent SOTA news outlet, Malev graduated from the law faculty of St. Petersburg University and has been residing in the United States since 1991.
One of the posts contained offensive language, while the other depicted a corpse wearing the ribbon with a caption ridiculing its significance: “The correct way to wear the Saint George’s ribbon.”
The court in St. Petersburg, where Malev faced trial, deemed his actions as demonstrating disrespect towards society and insulting the memory of the Great Patriotic War, the Russian term for World War Two.
Malev confessed to the charges, according to the court. A representative from the US Embassy in Moscow did not respond immediately to a request for comment regarding his conviction.
