A Russian accused of supporting Ukraine with yellow and blue hair is at risk of being sent to the front.

The devil is in the details… and the colors. Russian police have opened a case against a Muscovite accused of discrediting the Russian army by dyeing his hair blue and yellow, the colors of Ukraine, as well as green.

27-year-old Stanislav Netessov went to the police station in central Moscow on April 28 after he was attacked at a bus stop the day before, beaten and his phone was taken away, the OVD-info organization explains. “Considering that Netesov’s hairstyle symbolized Ukraine and discredited the Russian army, the police filed a report against him,” explains an NGO that specializes in monitoring the suppression of critical Kremlin voices, indicating that the accused now faces a fine because of his hair.

“In addition, law enforcement agencies took his fingerprints. They told him they would make it hug your native land in the trenches and handed him a summons to the military registration and enlistment office,” continues the organization that the young man contacted. The NGO did not say whether the police had also registered her complaint.

Ruthless crackdown on Kremlin critics

Since its invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Russia has launched a ruthless crackdown on Kremlin critics, especially those, anonymous or well-known, who condemn the war. Thousands of journalists, human rights activists, political opponents and ordinary citizens active on social media are in prison or facing prosecution for denouncing the invasion of Ukraine or Russian military abuses.

A month ago, a Russian court sentenced documentary filmmaker Vsevolod Korolev to three years in prison for posting social media posts condemning mass killings attributed to the Russian army in Ukraine. Thus, the slightest comment can be criticized by ordinary citizens. Moscow pediatrician Nadezhda Buyanova was placed in pre-trial detention on April 25, accused by authorities of violating judicial controls imposed on her since February and charges of discrediting the army.

She was prosecuted after a 67-year-old doctor allegedly told the widow of a Russian soldier killed in Ukraine and her child during a medical consultation that the late father was a “legitimate target.” As in the case of Netessov, last month a Moscow court fined a city resident 30,000 rubles (300 euros, twice the Russian minimum wage) whose bag had a pattern of yellow and blue felt flowers on it.