Four Russians under house arrest for Ukrainian flag stunt
| Publisher | Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty |
| Publication Date | 22 August 2014 |
| Cite as | Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, Four Russians under house arrest for Ukrainian flag stunt, 22 August 2014, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/54003f4f18.html [accessed 1 June 2023] |
| Disclaimer | This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States. |
August 22, 2014
By RFE/RL's Russian Service
A Moscow city worker takes a selfie while atop the Kotelnicheskaya Embankment building in Moscow to remove the Ukrainian flag mounted there overnight on August 19-20.
A Russian court has ordered house arrest for four Muscovites accused of hanging a Ukrainian flag from a Soviet-era star atop a building near the Kremlin.
The suspects could be imprisoned for seven years for the stunt, in which activists also painted part of the star in the blue-and-yellow colors of Ukraine's flag.
Police had initially accused them of vandalism, a less serious crime, but changed the charge to hooliganism and asked the court to place them in pretrial detention.
The judges ordered house arrest instead.
The two men and two women have admitted to parachuting from the big Stalin-era building but denied putting up the flag or painting the star.
Russian-Ukrainian relations have been severely strained by Moscow's annexation of Crimea and the conflict between government forces and pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine.
Link to original story on RFE/RL website
