Russian court convicts one for pro-Ukrainian 'vandalism'

A Russian court on Thursday jailed a man for more than two years over a protest in which the top of a Moscow skyscraper was painted to resemble the Ukrainian flag.

Moscow's Tagansky district court sentenced Vladimir Podrezov, 20, a participant in the "roofing" subculture of high-rise stunts, to two years and three months in prison for "hatred-motivated vandalism."

In August last year, activists painted the Soviet-era star on top of an iconic Moscow skyscraper blue and flew the blue-and-yellow Ukrainian flag from it.

Podrezov's conviction came despite the fact that a Ukrainian daredevil who calls himself Mustang and takes pictures of himself hanging off tall buildings by one arm has claimed responsibility.

Mustang, who is in Ukraine, said he was the only one responsible for the stunt and uploaded a video of himself doing it.

Mustang, whose real name is Pavel Ushivets and who has spent time in a Ukrainian volunteer battalion, said the people arrested were innocent. He  posted pictures and videos of himself standing on the painted star with the Ukrainian flag.

"I did not see the Russian citizens on the roof and I don't even know them," he said, adding that he painted the star due to a "surge of sincere patriotic sentiments" amid the escalating conflict between Kiev's army and pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine.

The court ruled that Podrezov conspired to take part in vandalism by helping Mustang buy paint and taking him onto the roof.

A slight figure with cropped blond hair and a plaid shirt, Podrezov stood silently in his metal-barred enclosure in the courtroom as the judge read the sentence.

"It's too bad, they should have released him, he had been behind bars for a year," his friend Ivan Khlopov told journalists.

In a surprise verdict, however, the judge acquitted four young Russian base jumpers accused of joining the protest.

The base jumpers had spent months under house arrest. They denied taking part in the protest, saying they happened to be in same place by accident.

Base jumpers parachute off high-rise buildings and mountains in a high-risk hobby.

One of those acquitted, Anna Lepeshkina, who is heavily pregnant, told journalists: "We have a small percentage of acquittals, we didn't believe it till the end.

"The investigation, unlike the court, was unfair. They constantly put pressure on us," she said.

Source: AFP

Source: MENA