An Azerbaijani citizen has been sentenced to one year in a penal colony settlement for a case involving the desecration of the Eternal Flame.

The Tula Regional Court has sentenced Jamal Rustamov, a citizen of Azerbaijan, to one year in a penal colony settlement in a case involving the desecration of the Eternal Flame. This was reported by the court’s press service.

The man was found guilty under the article concerning the desecration of symbols of military glory and the memory of those who defended the Homeland (Part 3, Article 354.1 of the Russian Criminal Code).

The court wrote: “On 26 March 2025, an undocumented migrant, in the presence of witnesses in a public place, urinated on the Eternal Flame at the memorial complex ‘To the Heroic Defenders of the City of Tula during the Great Patriotic War,’ located near the city’s central bus station.”

Rustamov admitted his guilt and expressed remorse over his actions. The press service states that he committed the offence while intoxicated.

• In recent years, there has been a several-fold increase in the number of criminal cases involving the desecration of Second World War monuments due to various activities by people near the Eternal Flame: dancing, cooking food, drinking parties, and so on. You can read more about this in an OVD-Info report.