This article was originally published by Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and is reprinted with permission.
A Moscow court said on March 21 it has sentenced local resident Yury Samoilov to 14 days in jail for having an image of the shoulder sleeve insignia of Ukraine’s Azov Regiment as a screensaver on his smartphone. Samoilov was found guilty of distributing extremist materials. The Azov Regiment, once a far-right group and now one of the most prominent Ukrainian military formations fighting against Russia in eastern Ukraine, was labeled as a “terrorist” organization in Russia in August 2022. Samoilov was charged after a fellow passenger on a subway train reported him to police.
