A circus in Russia has been targeted by the judiciary because of the appearance of a monkey in Nazi uniform and two goats with swastika symbols. The public prosecutor’s office in the Udmurt region announced that they had initiated an investigation into the performance on January 8th. Images of „animals with blankets with Nazi symbols“ appeared on the Internet.
The performance was hosted by the local Orthodox Church and, according to them, should take the audience on a trip to the Christmas festivities of years gone by. The Orthodox diocese of the regional capital of Izhevsk announced that the Nazi symbols had been used in a show about the defeat of the German army during World War II.
Reference to change in law
A video published by the circus showed a monkey in Nazi uniform being led through the arena by a woman in Soviet military uniform. „A special feature of circus art is entertainment, and it is not surprising that the images used have an ironic and sometimes even grotesque character,“ the diocese said. The performance did not violate Russian laws.
The diocese and circus referred to a change in the law passed last year that lifts the blanket ban on the use of Nazi symbols as long as they do not serve a fascist ideology. The blanket ban on symbols of National Socialism, which came into force in 2014, was criticized, among other things, because it also applied to documentaries about the “Third Reich” and school books.
