A resident of the Urals who lit a cigarette from the Eternal Flame has been sentenced to community service.

On 27 June, the Sverdlovsk Regional Court sentenced Yevgeny Yelkin, a resident of Irbit (a town in the Urals), to six months of community service under charges of rehabilitation of Nazism (Part 3, Article 354.1 of the Criminal Code) because he lit a cigarette from the Eternal Flame. OVD-Info learned this from the court.

The case became known on 17 January. The regional branch of the Ministry of Internal Affairs clarified that Yelkin first asked several people for a lighter but was refused. He then stepped over the barrier and lit his cigarette from the Eternal Flame. He was later tracked down via surveillance cameras and placed under house arrest. The detained individual admitted guilt.

• According to the Research Centre SOVA, many cases under Article 354.1 of the Criminal Code (rehabilitation of Nazism) are initiated unlawfully and should be classified under other articles of the Criminal Code or be addressed through civil, rather than criminal, proceedings.