A Cherkessk resident was fined for displaying prohibited symbols.

The Cherkessk City Court of the Karachay-Cherkess Republic found Anastasia Melnikova, a resident of the region, guilty of publicly displaying the symbols of an extremist organization, the "LGBT* Movement."

As reported by the "Caucasian Knot," journalist and Circassian activist Larisa Tuptsokova, who lives in Georgia, learned about a criminal case being opened against her in Russia under the article on extremism.

Internet monitoring revealed that the VKontakte user page, with the online handle "Favorite - Your Unimportant," contained photographs containing symbols of the extremist organization "LGBT Community*" (the rainbow flag), whose activities are banned in the Russian Federation, according to a court ruling on the court's website.

Melnikova explained that she created the page a long time ago and hadn't used it for the past five years. She admitted her guilt and expressed remorse.

"The assistant prosecutor of the city of Cherkessk considered it necessary to find Melnikova A.A. guilty of committing an administrative offense under Part 1 of Article 20.3 of the Code of the Russian Federation on Administrative Offenses1 and asked to impose the minimum punishment provided for by the article in the form of a fine," the ruling states.

The court took this into account and considered Melnikova's three children—two minors and one young adult—as mitigating circumstances. She was sentenced to a fine of 1,000 rubles, the court clarified.

* The organization is listed as extremist.

**The activities of Meta (owner of Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp) are banned in Russia.