You're reading: Court places all four suspects in Moscow skyscraper disorderly conduct case under house arrest

MOSCOW – Moscow's Tagansky Court has placed under house arrest all four suspects in the criminal case over the placing of a Ukrainian flag at the top of a skyscraper on Kotelnicheskaya Embankment and the painting of its spire blue until October 19.

 The court did not uphold the request by investigators to remand Alexander Pogrebov, Alexei Shirokozhukhov, Anna Lepyoshkina and Yevgenia Korotkova in custody, the Interfax correspondent reported.

According to information from investigators, the four suspects are charged under two Russian Criminal Code articles – on vandalism (article 214 part 2) and disorderly conduct (article 213 part 2).

It has been reported that early in the morning on August 20 unknown individuals hung a three by six meter Ukrainian yellow and blue flag on the spire of the Kotelnicheskaya Embankment skyscraper and painted the top of the golden star installed on the spire on the building blue.

Four people with mountaineering equipment, who may have been involved in the appearance of the Ukrainian flag on the skyscraper, were brought to the Tagansky district police station on August 20, a law enforcement source told Interfax. It is suspected that these individuals climbed the stairs to the top floor and then put up the flag and painted the star on the spire using special equipment.

Initially the criminal case regarding the Kotelnicheskaya Embankment skyscraper was opened under the Russian Criminal Code Article 214, vandalism. However, it was adjusted to Article 213 Part 2 (disorderly conduct) later and was handed over to the interior affairs department subdivision for the central district for investigation, the Moscow police press office said on Thursday.

The decision has been made upon the request of the Prosecutor General’s Office “due to the presence in the actions by those who committed this crime of indications of disorderly conduct by a group of people for motives of political or ideological hatred or feud, that is, a crime enshrined by Part 2 of Article 213 of the Russian Criminal Code,” Russian Prosecutor General’s Office spokesperson Marina Gridneva told Interfax on Thursday.

Vandalism is punishable by up to three years in prison, while disorderly conduct is punishable by up to seven years in prison in Russia.

Several searches have been conducted during the investigation. Physical evidence has been taken and 11 forensic tests, including chemical, biological, fingerprinting, and criminological, have been ordered.