Controversial symbol in Brest bus, end of July 2017
Belarusians are writing more and more complaints with the demand to remove St. George’s ribbons and Russian flags from vehicles.
Yuryi Kutuzau from Smarhon was returning from Warsaw by the “Minsk-Prague” bus, which belonged to Babruisk tourist company “Visit-Tour”.
In the beginning, Yuryi was happy with the trip — the bus was modern and comfortable. But then he saw the St. George’s ribbon in the driver’s cabin…
“I was surprised by the audacity of the crew that travels to Europe with this symbol in the official bus, and even more – the tolerance of border guards of the European countries…I was traveling with a child, so I did not enter into a debate or make fuss. To be honest, I did not want to spoil the mood. But when I returned from Poland, I sent a relevant letter to the company,” Yuryi wrote on his Facebook page.
As a result, the man received a reply that according to traffic rules, the ribbon was removed from the bus, and the driver was informed of the inadmissibility of such actions.
A Brest dweller Ihar Maslouski complained to the regional traffic police and Brest traffic service about the Russian flag on the windshield of a city bus. The driver, a Russian citizen by the way, refused to take it off, when he was asked to do it on a voluntary basis.
In June, following a complaint by an independent Brest journalist Ales Lyauchuk, who saw St. George’s ribbon and the Russian flag on the public utilities’ transport, the drivers were brought to administrative responsibility.
It should be noted that the orange-and-black ribbon, called “St. George ribbon” in Russia, began to be overtly avoided in Belarus a year after it actually became a symbol of Russian occupational forces and pro-Russian separatists in Ukraine.
