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The Moscow City Court has reduced the sentences of HSE graduates Daniil Golikov and Andrey Kozlovsky in the case concerning damage to an improvised memorial “to the memory of all those who died during the Russian Spring and the Special Military Operation”. This was reported by SOTAvision.
In November 2024, the Tverskoy District Court in Moscow found the young people guilty under articles on vandalism (part 2, Article 214 of the Criminal Code) and on the destruction of memorial structures commemorating those who died defending the Fatherland (para. “a,” part 2, Article 243.4 of the Criminal Code). Golikov was handed two and a half years in an open prison colony, and Kozlovsky received three years.
According to investigators, on the night of 10-11 March 2024, Golikov and Kozlovsky scattered flowers from the makeshift memorial “to the memory of all those who died during the Russian Spring and the Special Military Operation” on Varvarka Street in Moscow. The prosecution claims that eight ceremonial wreaths, three flower vases, two candleholders, and some artificial carnations were damaged, estimating the damage at 55,732 rubles (about US$600). The defendants admitted their guilt and expressed remorse for what they had done.
At the appeal stage, the vandalism charge was dropped, and the sentences of Golikov and Kozlovsky were reduced to two years in an open prison colony. The defence pointed out that there was no actual object of the crime in the case, since the memorial does not have any historical or cultural value.
The case includes a victim—activist Olesya Solovyova from the “Generation of Russian Spring” movement, who together with other volunteers maintains the memorial. In an interview, she said: “The flowers looked as if someone had trampled them, and wreaths and icons were scattered.” At the same time, Solovyova asked for a punishment that would not involve imprisonment for the young people.
“My behaviour was disgusting, I am sorry it turned out this way. We didn’t mean to do it. It was simply a fatal mistake, and we completely regret it. …> I want to return and be useful to society, help my loved ones, help the church, which is important to me,” Kozlovsky said in court.
- As SOTAvision reports, at the hearing Kozlovsky described how at the time Golikov had just been dumped by his girlfriend, and out of negative emotions, kicked a vase of flowers: “It all happened spontaneously… Golikov called me, said his girlfriend had left him, suggested we get some air. …> We went to a bus stop on Varvarka Street. On the way Daniil saw the flowers, went over to where they were, and out of anger from breaking up with his girlfriend, kicked the flowers in the vase. …> At some point I approached and knocked over the flowers standing in the vase,” the outlet quotes Kozlovsky as saying.
- After their arrest, Golikov and Kozlovsky were placed under house arrest, a restraint measure chosen by the Tverskoy District Court on 28 March. Prior to that, they had spent 15 days in a detention centre—at a court hearing that sentenced them to administrative detention for disobeying the police (Article 19.3 of the Code of Administrative Offences), they said they had been heavily intoxicated and did not remember what happened at the memorial.