Minsk policemen refuse to remove Russian flag from their car

Engineer Dzmitry Kurza complained to the Ministry of Internal Affairs about a Russian souvenir flag that he had noticed on a police car. There is a tendency to do it but nobody has complained about it before.

“My purse was stolen near the railway station on July 29. I went to the local transport police office to declare it,” Dzmitry recalled. “I wrote my complaint and was about to leave when I noticed a small Russian flag on one of the police cars parked near the building. I returned and asked policemen to remove the flag. I think that public servants should not openly sympathize with any political movement or use other states’ symbols on police cars. They can do it at home or in their own cars if they like.”

The policemen replied that they did not think that there was anything bad about the Russian flag, Dzmitry reported:

“I said that it was inadmissible to attach foreign symbols to state transport. They phoned me a week later and asked me to come to the police office in Rosa Luxemburg Street (Minsk transport police office is situated there - Euroradio). I refused to do it without a subpoena.”

Dzmitry received a reply from the head of the department of Minsk transport police. It was explained that the flag was ‘a Union State souvenir’. He noticed no violation in it. Dzmitry Kurza complained to the city police department then. He also referred to the road rules that forbade attaching unnecessary items to car windows. However, it was not enough. Dzmitry received another refusal on Wednesday, August 27.

“No road rules or laws of the Republic of Belarus have been violated,” the document signed by S.M. Sinevich stated. “The department would like to express gratitude for your cooperation,” the reply ended on a diplomatic note.

We did not notice any minibuses with Russian flags near the police office situated not far from the railway station on Thursday, August 28. The other cars looked okay too.

We contacted the information department of Minsk police to find out their attitude to attaching a composition of Russian and Belarusian flags to police cars.

“To tell you the truth, it is the first time we hear about it. We have never paid attention to it before,” they told Euroradio and promised to consider our question.

Euroradio has already reported the fact that Belarusian servicemen liked attaching Russian flags and ribbons of Saint George as a tribute to the memory of veterans of the Great Patriotic War. However, the symbols are often perceived as a way of supporting separatists in East Ukraine nowadays.

Photo: virtual.brest.by