The Sverdlovsky District Court of Kostroma ruled on October 14 under Part 1 of Article 20.3 of the Russian Code of Administrative Offenses, which covers the display of extremist symbols, according to the outlet 7x7, citing Tarasov himself.
The case centered on a photograph showing Tarasov in a T-shirt bearing the phrase "I am against the party of crooks and thieves." On the back was a drawing of a person kicking a bear, the symbol of United Russia.
The expert assessment was commissioned by the Interior Ministry. In her conclusion, the expert attributed the meme to Alexei Navalny and asserted that the slogan "did not simply criticize — it delegitimized the ruling party in the eyes of voters." According to the expert, the inscription "serves to attribute the oppositional stance of the subject using it, developed in visual markers linked to the activities of structures controlled by Alexei Navalny."
Tarasov wrote on VKontakte that the phrase appears nowhere and has not been recognized as extremist. According to him, the prosecution's argument was "pulled by the ears" — that representatives of banned extremist organizations had at some point, somewhere, used the phrase or its equivalent. "But by the same logic one could ban the Russian alphabet, since all extremists and terrorists use letters," he said.
Tarasov himself considers the fine a continuation of pressure after the elections. He recalled that he ran for the State Duma from Yabloko on a platform titled "For peace and freedom, for life without fear" and finished third, ahead of candidates from other systemic parties.
The complaint against Andrei Tarasov was filed by Sergei Shpotin, secretary of the Kostroma regional Communist Party committee for organizational and party work, who himself ran in the 2025 election for governor of the Kostroma region. The communist objected that his party colleagues were "dragged through the courts, fined, have their doors broken down and are persecuted for the truth about the 'party of crooks and thieves,'" while this "new liberal" gets away with absolutely everything.
The phrase "party of crooks and thieves" was applied to United Russia in 2010 by politician Boris Nemtsov on Radio Liberty. Navalny later popularized it in his LiveJournal blog. During the 2011 State Duma election campaign, the expression was widely used by opposition forces and individual citizens, and posters and stickers reading "Down with the party of crooks and thieves" were distributed at mass protests in 2011–2012. A Levada Center poll in June 2012 showed that 42% agreed with the description of United Russia as a "party of crooks and thieves."