Members of the Public Chamber of the Russian Federation believe that the situation with non-state awards for “SVO participants” is out of control. Foundations, non-profit organizations, and even individuals issue a large number of their awards, and copies of real awards can be purchased on the market.
Kommersant writes that the topic of “mobilization of veterans” was raised at a recent meeting by a member of the Public Chamber Ekaterina Kolotovkina. She said she met three men who had received a large number of decorations and medals and tried to find out why they were awarded them. It turned out that they were carrying humanitarian supplies, and received awards from public organizations.
Journalist Anastasia Kashevarova said: “This is a painful topic. Institutions, NGOs, organizations, even individuals – everyone makes their own medals and distributes them uncontrollably.” Some people use such rewards to commit fraud, she said.
“The most evil of them go to schools, talk to young people – such nonsense, sorry, is said there,” said Russian hero Rustam Klubov. In turn, “SVO veteran” from Wagner PMC Konstantin Voznyuk said that some “scoundrels” in case of problems with the law “do not hesitate to speculate on undeserved awards.” At the same time, it is often impossible to check whether the award is real – many applications issued by the Ministry of Defense for awards are closed.
Member of the Public Chamber, lawyer Alexander Ternovtsov, noted that public organizations have the right to wear badges. By law, such badges cannot have “similar names or external resemblance” to state awards, and wearing an “imitation” will result in a fine. However, these requirements are often not met, and fines are minimal.
Kashevarova warned that after the war ended, “masked fraudsters will take to the streets to beg.” Therefore, in her opinion, the uncontrolled wearing of trophies should be dealt with now.
At the meeting, several measures were proposed to combat the “mummers”. For example, increasing fines, banning stars, swords and crosses in the design of non-governmental insignia, as well as creating a register of awards for public organizations, which will be maintained by the Ministry of Justice. However, the participants did not support any of these proposals.
As a result, they decided to create a separate working group on the issue of prizes in the Common Chamber, and discuss the issue with the markets first.