Vandalism criminal case opened after anti-war protest in Moscow

The protest took place on 24 August — six months after the beginning of the war in Ukraine. Russian citizen Alexander Nizamov was detained on suspicion of vandalism committed by a group of people and on the basis of hatred or enmity. He was taken to a local police department; the law enforcement agents told his lawyer that his not yet chosen measure of restraint would not involve an arrest.

According to the criminal case report, unknown persons approached the fountain and “spilled an undefined liquid of red colour from a plastic bottle into the fountain, thus defiling its appearance, while cynically violating norms of morality, behaviour rules for public places, being conscious of the wrongfulness of their actions, wishing stand against the society”, and then left.