On July 25, Russia's upper house approved a new censorship law that introduces fines for anyone caught searching for or accessing content officially labeled as "extremist." This law also imposes penalties for promoting VPN services, tools many Russians rely on to bypass censorship.
The appropriation of patriotic symbols like the American flag and Patriots' Day has raised concerns regarding their use in far-right extremism, distorting the original meaning.
In February, the DoD issued a memo halting a major counter-extremism initiative rooting out white nationalists and far-right influences among servicemen, citing that it was not in line with Donald Trump's executive orders.