VLADIVOSTOK, Russia -- A court in Russia's Far East has fined a protester for holding a poster citing a popular rock star's recent quip that crudely warned citizens not to blindly follow President Vladimir Putin.
Georgy Kakabadze told RFE/RL on July 20 that the Pervorechensky district court in the city of Vladivostok ordered him to pay a 40,000 ruble ($710) fine for the poster, which said: "The motherland is not the president's a*s."
The phrase became a popular slogan after Yury Shevchuk, the leader and front man of DDT, one of Russia's most popular rock groups, told the audience at a concert in May: "The motherland is not the president's ass, which one must lather and kiss all the time."
"The motherland is a beggar, an old woman that sells potatoes at the railway station. That is what motherland is," he said.
Kakabadze also told RFE/RL that the court banned the phrase "a*s" from slogans, saying it carries elements of contempt for authorities.
Kakabadze's lawyer, Sergei Valiullin, told RFE/RL that he will appeal the court's decision.
In May, after a video of Shevchuk talking about the war at the concert went viral on social media, several protests against Russia's ongoing unprovoked invasion of Ukraine were held in Vladivostok with many repeating the slogan: "The motherland is not the president's ass."
Shevchuk, who over the years has challenged Putin’s decisions, was charged with discrediting the army for his comments about Russia's unprovoked invasion of Ukraine and the motherland.
In April, authorities in the Siberian city of Tyumen canceled a DDT concert in the city after Shevchuk refused to perform on a stage decorated with a huge "Z" -- a sign of support for Russia's war against Ukraine.