The Murmansk Procurator Turned Down the Criminal Case of an Advertising Poster with a Nationalist Tone In June, 2007, the procurator of Pervomaiskiy region (Murmansk) refused to accept the criminal case regarding a poster for the club �Gulfstream� that was put up on the event of Victory Day on a public transportation stop, inviting people to the disco �Night of Victory�, with the sub-text "People from the Baltic and Poles don�t bother�.* The statement was made by a resident of Murmansk to the procurator, with an attached photo of the poster, with a request to carry out an investigation related to �inciting ethnic hatred�. The resident had noticed the poster on the bus stop �Bering Street�. According to the answer received by the plaintiff, in the course of the investigation the director and art-director of the club were questioned, and their response was the sub-text "People from the Baltic and Poles don�t bother�* (according to the art-director D. Kuntov) was intended to �calm people who could be from the Baltic or Poland to take part in the disco that no excesses or misunderstandings would occur�. After this, the director did not agree with the image of the poster, and the copies made by the art-director were supposedly thrown out by him. How a thrown out poster made it to the bus stop �Bering Street�, club directors were not able to explain. Not having seen any attributes of a crime in the actions of the club management, the Office of Public Prosecutor refused to pursue the case. *The word originally used in the text has multiple meanings in Russian: worry, trouble or bother. Source: SOVA Center
The Murmansk Procurator Turned Down the Criminal Case of an Advertising Poster with a Nationalist Tone
The statement was made by a resident of Murmansk to the procurator, with an attached photo of the poster, with a request to carry out an investigation related to �inciting ethnic hatred�. The resident had noticed the poster on the bus stop �Bering Street�.
According to the answer received by the plaintiff, in the course of the investigation the director and art-director of the club were questioned, and their response was the sub-text "People from the Baltic and Poles don�t bother�* (according to the art-director D. Kuntov) was intended to �calm people who could be from the Baltic or Poland to take part in the disco that no excesses or misunderstandings would occur�. After this, the director did not agree with the image of the poster, and the copies made by the art-director were supposedly thrown out by him. How a thrown out poster made it to the bus stop �Bering Street�, club directors were not able to explain.
Not having seen any attributes of a crime in the actions of the club management, the Office of Public Prosecutor refused to pursue the case.
*The word originally used in the text has multiple meanings in Russian: worry, trouble or bother.
Source: SOVA Center
