Police fine Švenčionienė 800 euros over St George’s ribbon

Police have fined pro-Russian activist Erika Švenčionienė 800 euros for displaying symbols associated with communist, totalitarian or authoritarian regimes, LRT reports. The fine was imposed over a video posted on YouTube that showed a St George’s ribbon, a Soviet five-pointed star and other Soviet symbols.

Švenčionienė disputes the fine, saying she did not display the symbols in the video and does not control the YouTube account where it was posted.

Speaking at a hearing at Vilnius City District Court on Wednesday, she said she had committed no offence and asked the court to terminate the case and acquit her. She said she had not known that the St George’s ribbon would appear in the video.

Vilnius County Police fined Švenčionienė in June. She was previously fined 700 euros for posting an image of Bolshevik leader Vladimir Lenin with a caption on Facebook. She told the court that she was nearing the end of paying that fine and had now received a second one.

Under the law, a repeat administrative offence of this kind carries a fine of between 500 and 900 euros for individuals. Heads or other responsible persons of legal entities may be fined between 800 and 1,500 euros.

Švenčionienė said her associates were responsible for the second fine. She said that on May 9, 2025, she had agreed to record a public greeting for Victory Day, which is celebrated in Russia as the day of victory over Nazi Germany.

In her complaint to the court, Švenčionienė said the video was uploaded by the Belarus International Forum of Good Neighbourhood and Edikas Jagelavičius, who is hiding from law enforcement in Belarus. She said Jagelavičius had accepted responsibility for his actions.

She said the video was filmed by Dmitrijus Glazkovas, a representative of the International Forum of Good Neighbourhood. Švenčionienė said she had agreed to allow her image to be used but had not authorised the editing of the greeting or known that St George’s ribbons could be added.

She also said the Belarus International Forum of Good Neighbourhood had access to her YouTube account, where the video was published. Švenčionienė said she accepted responsibility for her words, but not for the video’s editing.

The court will announce its decision on September 30.

In a separate criminal case, the Prosecutor General’s Office has asked the court to find Švenčionienė guilty of helping another state act against Lithuania and impose an actual two-year prison sentence. Prosecutors have also asked for her conviction over public approval of international crimes and Soviet crimes, as well as their denial or gross trivialisation.

According to the case materials, Švenčionienė came under law enforcement scrutiny after travelling to Belarus, where she and other defendants took part in Belarusian and Russian media programmes, publicly supported the policies of authoritarian states and denied the legitimacy of Lithuania’s parliament.