Court overturns police order imposing 800-euro fine over ribbon video
Wednesday 30th September 2026 on 13:30 in
Lithuania
A Vilnius court on Wednesday overturned a police decision to fine pro-Russian activist Erika Švenčionienė 800 euros for displaying a St George’s ribbon in a YouTube video and sent the administrative case back to police for further investigation, LRT reported.
The Vilnius City District Court said it remained unclear who created and uploaded the video, which was publicly available on a YouTube account, and whether it had been edited. The footage showed symbols banned as those of the communist regime, including a five-pointed star with a hammer and sickle and a black-and-orange St George’s ribbon.
The judge said police had not taken technical steps to establish from which country or device the video was uploaded, or whether it was original or edited. Without that evidence, the court said, it could not fully and objectively determine whether Švenčionienė was responsible for publicly displaying the symbols.
Švenčionienė had challenged the fine, saying the symbols were added to a greeting video without her knowledge. She said she had agreed to appear in the recording but had not consented to its editing, and that the Belarus International Forum of Good Neighbourhood had access to her YouTube account. She also said the video was filmed by forum representative Dmitrijus Glazkovas and uploaded by the forum and Edikas Jagelavičius, who she said had taken responsibility for doing so.
The video was a public greeting for Victory Day on May 9, 2025. Vilnius County Police fined Švenčionienė in June this year. The court’s ruling is not final and may be appealed.
Two years ago, Švenčionienė was fined 700 euros for posting an image of Bolshevik leader Vladimir Lenin with a caption on Facebook. Under the law, repeat violations carry fines of 500 to 900 euros for individuals.
In a separate criminal case, the Prosecutor General’s Office has asked the court to convict Švenčionienė of helping another state act against Lithuania and to impose a two-year prison sentence. Prosecutors have also sought a conviction over public approval of international and Soviet crimes, their denial or their gross trivialisation.