The head of the Moldovan coordination committee ‘Victory’ Alexei Petrovich said that the Moldovan law enforcement authorities issue administrative fines to all those who wear St. George ribbons, including pensioners, who honour the memory of their ancestors in this way.
‘Usually fines for wearing St George’s ribbons in Moldova are imposed either on people who are in the public eye, i.e. deputies, politicians, public figures, or completely defenceless people – pensioners and old people who wear the ribbon as a sign of remembrance of their fathers and grandfathers who took part in the war,’ Alexei Petrovich said in comments to RIA Novosti.
The head of the Moldovan Victory Coordination Committee said that they, as organisers of Victory Day celebrations, would not urge people to wear the St George’s ribbon.
‘But we consider it a symbol of memory, it will be present at the Victory Day event as such,’ he added.
The public figure recalled Chisinau’s decision to recognise the St George’s ribbon as a symbol of extremism. At the same time, he emphasised that in 2023, the Moldovan Constitutional Court ruled that when individuals or legal entities wear the item, law enforcement officers need to prove its use as a symbol of war, aggression or extremism.
‘Practice shows that police officers continue to fine citizens without any proof, citizens try to explain that they use the ribbon as a symbol of remembrance. Formally it turns out that the ribbon is allowed as a symbol of memory and prohibited as a symbol of aggression. But in practice, it is up to police officers to determine and decide what the ribbon is, but they can’t do it,’ said Petrovich.
We shall remind you that earlier Alexei Petrovich said that the Moldovan authorities had officially banned the celebration of the Soviet Union’s victory in the Great Patriotic War on the main square of the country, proclaiming 9 May as Europe Day.
