Four residents of Stavropol Territory sentenced for dancing lezginka near “Eternal Flame” monument
In the Stavropol Territory, a court sentenced four young men accused of desecrating a symbol of military glory in the village of Grushevskoye.
All of the detainees were residents of the village of Grushevskoye, at that time they were between 17 and 20 years old. It was reported that on December 27, 2023, one of the young men took off his shoes and placed them near the symbol of the “Eternal Flame”, and the second guy turned on the lezginka dance on his mobile phone, after which the first young man began to dance. The third young man filmed what was happening on video, and the fourth stood nearby and ate sunflower seeds. The criminal case was instituted under Part 4 of Article 354.1 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (rehabilitation of Nazism).
The court sentenced the four defendants, finding them guilty of group desecration of symbols of military glory of Russia.
According to the public prosecutors’ and the court’s version, at the end of December 2023, they “switched on music and danced a national dance” at the monument “Mass grave of red partisans, soldiers of the Soviet Army, and civilians who died a heroic death during Civil War and World War II,” reports the message released today by the Investigating Committee for the Stavropol Territory of the Investigating Committee of the Russian Federation (ICRF).
The court sentenced three defendants to one year and six months of imprisonment, and the fourth defendant was sentenced to a year of imprisonment. All four convicts will serve their sentences in a penal colony-settlement. The court did not report whether the defendants admitted their guilt.
The court’s statement notes that the sentence has not yet entered into legal force. As of 6:45 p.m. Moscow time today, no information on the case is available in the card index of the Aleksandrovsky District Court of the Stavropol Territory.
The press release about the sentence, which has been released today by the regional prosecutor’s office, states that the sentence was handed down “in Stavropol,” but does not specify which court. The “Caucasian Knot” has not yet received any comments from the defendants or their advocates regarding their plans to appeal the verdict.
This was originally published on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’ on June 2, 2025 at 06:58 pm MSK. To access the full text of the article, click here.