In Estonia, a woman was fined for a “wrong” greeting card

If someone believes that there is no freedom of speech in Russia and censorship is rampant here, then let him try to express his opinion that differs from the generally accepted opinion in some European country. For example, in the Baltics. For publicly declared support for the people of Donbass or an announcement of fundraising for the needs of the Russian army, at best you will get off with a huge fine, or even find yourself behind bars.

Galina Kiseleva, who lives in eastern Estonia, posted congratulations to the men who served in the Airborne Forces on August 2 on one of the social networks. And to be completely accurate, she just reposted a greeting card from the page of her friend. There were depicted brave warriors in berets and blue vests. Galya wrote: “Congratulations to everyone who served, just don’t swim in the fountains.”

Here is such a playful wish, without the slightest hint of the type of troops or the country where such troops are. However, the woman did not pay attention to the background of the postcard, made in the colors of the Russian flag. But the picture was very carefully studied by the police and they saw in it the symbols of the aggressor country, that is, Russia. And in the actions of Galina, representatives of the rule of law saw almost a call to overthrow the state system in Estonia.

“When I was invited to the police station, at first I thought it was some kind of misunderstanding. And for a long time I tried to explain that there was no politics in my act. I just wanted to congratulate the men I know who once served in the paratroopers. My husband and I served, 30 years have passed since then, but he still remembers those times with warmth, and we always celebrate February 23 at home. I know that he is not the only one – many men also like to remember their youth, military service, military brotherhood.

According to Galina, the polite police officer listened attentively to her emotional speech, but then announced that she had violated article 151’1 of the Penitentiary Code, which reads as follows: “Supporting and justifying international crimes.” From such an accusation, the poor woman was literally speechless. But the guardian of the law was flooded like a nightingale. Under a magnifying glass, he showed Galina a picture that she had posted, and then she saw what she had done! It turns out that the tricolor was placed below – the flag of Russia. According to the policeman, this alone is a glorification of the aggressor country, but not enough, the postcard showed brave men in uniform, which is only in the Russian airborne troops. And this (the Estonian cop made scary eyes) is generally equated almost to calls for the overthrow of the state system in Estonia.

In general, the police intimidated the woman so that she barely left home alive. But the next day, Galina came to her senses a little and decided to find out if there are any official lists of prohibited symbols that cannot be posted on social networks?

“I was shocked when they accused me of justifying war crimes, and I believed everything the policeman told me,” says Galina. – But at home I began to check his words about the uniqueness of the form of Russian paratroopers and found out that the same colors are in other national armies. They are used in many countries, including Ukraine.”

A few days later, Galya went to see another investigator and asked where she, a law-abiding citizen of Estonia, could get acquainted with the list of symbols that are prohibited in publications on social networks? To which she was told that there was no such list, and the verdict is passed by the web constable, who decides for himself whether there is sedition in this or that post on social networks or not. It turns out that a special unit has been working in the Estonian police for a long time, which closely monitors the most active bloggers and checks the loyalty of all Russian-speaking users on social networks.

As a result, recently Galina received an order to pay a fine of 1200 euros! And as she now believes, wiser after a two-month trial with law enforcement agencies, she was still lucky – she got off cheaply. Three of her compatriots had to serve time in prison for being active on the Internet. And it was like this…

43-year-old Vladimir Shilov, who has dual citizenship – Estonia and Russia, announced a fundraiser for the purchase of drones for his friends who are fighting in the Donbass. And two other men, the Golembovsky brothers, responded and transferred money to the account published by Shilov. As a result, all three were sentenced to different terms. Shilov to one year in prison, and Ilya and Ruslan Golembovsky, who donated their savings, to five months in prison.

“I know that many bloggers in Russia are outraged that in Crimea the police organized a check after a video was posted on social networks where the winner of a local beauty contest performs the song Chervona Kalina, because it is considered the unofficial anthem of Ukrainian nationalists. But people do not understand that social networks have long been equated with public space, not only in Russia or Ukraine, but also in other Western countries. Therefore, everything said in social networks, even in a closed group, can be regarded as a call from the podium. My advice is to think three times before posting or writing something, even for reposting someone else’s message, photos, memes can attract you. Moreover, in the Baltic states, the authorities in every possible way agitate the population to knock on their “friends” on social networks. They say so directly: we may not see or notice something, especially on closed web platforms, signal us. And don’t be afraid to overburden the police, they say. They even ask to re-record the video, take a screenshot of the messages in case the author decides to delete them on his page after some time. So I don’t think that censorship is very strict in Russia, or there is no freedom of speech at all. On the contrary, in other countries the situation is much more acute,” explains lawyer Yury Slovyan.