Man Arrested in St. Petersburg for Holding Up Sign of a Cartoon Character's Tag Line, "Let's All Get Along!"

There's a lovely and popular Russian cartoon series called Kot Leopold, which means Leopold the Cat. To quote the accurate Wikipedia summary,

Leopold the Cat (Russian: Кот Леопольд, Kot Leopold) is a Soviet/Russian animated short film series about a good-natured and prudent cat, Leopold. Leopold always wears a bow tie even when swimming. Throughout the series, he has to deal with two mischievous mice …. Leopold's catchphrase is "Guys, let's all get along" (Russian: Ребята, давайте жить дружно)….

(I leave to readers to decide whether there's something deeply significant about Tom and Jerry having the mouse always be the winner, and Kot Leopold having the cat always be the winner. Note also that the literal translation is "Guys, let's live amicably," but "let's all get along" is a good idiomatic translation.)

Sunday, Gazeta.ru (Arseniy Rogozianskiy) reported that a man was arrested for holding a sign depicting Leopold and the final words of his catchphrase, "let's all get along"; the sign appears to be the one in the picture above. The man has been identified as Lev Sokolov; my hat would be off to him, if I wore a hat. The article states that, according to news accounts (apparently based on Sokolov's own comments), Sokolov was questioned about his job, his military service, and his views of the "special military operation" in Ukraine. Other Russian-language sites report the story as well (e.g., Kommersant.ru), and there's also the video I include above.

The music in the YouTube video is apparently coming from a street musician who was there when Sokolov was arrested; it's Boris Grebenshchikov's / Aquarium's performance of "Golden City" (more at Wikipedia). Grebenshchikov, a prominent Russian musician, has emerged as a noted opponent of Russia's invasion of Ukraine; I have no idea whether the street musician deliberately chose the song on occasion of the arrest, or of the underlying protest.

Comments

[questioner7]

My reaction is summarized by https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/322979-there-was-no-way-his-imagination-could-feel-the-impact

[OtisAH]

And just up the coast, and a half world away, in Tallahassee a principal was forced to resign because the 6th grade students at her charter school were shown a picture of Michelangelo’s David. The forced resignation was due to the complaints of three parents, one of whom invoked “pornography.” Tallahassee Classical has 510 students.

At what point do the parental rights of the vast majority of parents get consideration I wonder?

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11894493/Tallahassee-principal-fired-parents-complain-Michelangelo-statue-David-pornographic.html

[Michael P]

I can't believe I was forced to read such piffle. Won't anyone protect my Thirteenth Amendment rights?

[grb]

Barney Bishop is the school board chair who fired the principle. He said, “Parental rights trump everything else,” and parents didn’t “like the woke indoctrination that was going on.”

So, yeah, a MAGA clown who sees “woke” everywhere, Michelangelo included. I hadn’t heard about this story because it doesn’t have anything to do with black people or sex.

If it had, our Conspirators would have already posted on it seven or eight times, wailing about political correctness....

[grb]

And there's a new post on the topic!

[Davy C]

At what point do the parental rights of the vast majority of parents get consideration I wonder?

What exactly do you mean by that? The other parents surely don't have the right to have a picture of David shown to their children by the school. They can show their kids that picture themselves, if they're so inclined.

[Sarcastr0]

So there's a right to ban content, but no right to demand content.

Not hard to see how that ends!

[kkoshkin]

And just think that this is the kind of society our cultural superiors would want us to live in. One where culturally appropriate messages and thoughts are dictated and policed by the betters.

[CindyF]

I suspect it is much like holding a sign saying "All Lives Matter" here in the U.S. Saying such a thing is considered to be equal to saying "Black lives do not matter". It is considered violent and hateful speech! And it has recently been discovered that the First Amendment does not protect "hate' speech.

Thou shall not speak ill of those that rule you!

And those that you aren't allowed to speak against are definitely the ones who are ruling!

[shawn_dude]

I saw "St Petersburg" and first thought... "What else have those morons in Florida done now." But the guy isn't in drag and he's white and no wild reptiles or narcotics are involved so it must've been Russia. But don't worry, DeSantis will be arresting white guys holding cartoon character signs eventually if it'll get him elected.

[rrgg]

I highly doubt this is even a real story. Even the Russian paper doesn’t state what the charge is. If this person even exists, I’d guess he was arrested for something else. I don't see Lev Sokolov in any Tampa/St. Pete paper yet either.

[Absaroka]

"I don’t see Lev Sokolov in any Tampa/St. Pete paper yet either."

There are a lot of other suspicious things as well:

-the police have Russian lettering on their uniforms
-the people aren't speaking English
-the van doesn't have a Florida license plate
-everyone is dressed way too warm for Florida in March

Analysis: must be fake news

[Ed Grinberg]

The guy was arrested because his sign implied criticism of Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
In Russia, public criticism of Putin or government (i.e., Putin's) policies is a no-no.

We can still say "Biden sucks." But what if you say "Biden didn't really win the election"? Will you be arrested for "spreading misinformation"?

[David Nieporent]

But what if you say “Biden didn’t really win the election”? Will you be arrested for “spreading misinformation”?

No. This has been yet another episode of Simple Answers to Stupid Questions.

[Bill Falcon]

In authoritarian or it seems "democratic" countries, you don't have a right to upset the regime. Not surprised in Putin's Russia and now not surprised in Biden's American.

[Roman Moroni]

Maybe he was arrested for copyright infringement.

[Not Unreasonable]

That headline had me going there for a minute, too. I thought Governor DeSantis had sent police to St, Petersburg. And I mostly like DeSantis.

[Dave_A]

St Petersberg *RUSSIA*....
Not Florida.
So the charge is whatever Putin's minions want it to be...