A court in Russia's Kaliningrad region has ordered a 60-year-old pensioner to compensate an 8-year-old boy he forced to kneel and apologize after the child answered him rudely during a roadside dispute. Nesterov District Court reached the ruling after a local prosecutor filed a lawsuit on the boy's behalf, the Kaliningrad regional court's press service told the Russian news outlet Lenta.ru.
The court ordered the man to pay the boy 20,000 rubles in compensation for the psychological suffering he caused.
What happened in Yasnaya Polyana
According to the boy's mother, her son was riding his bicycle home on the afternoon of March 30 in the settlement of Yasnaya Polyana when he passed another cyclist, who whistled at him. The boy responded impolitely and rode on.
The man then caught up with the boy, scolded him, and made him kneel down and apologize, the mother said. The confrontation took place on the roadway of a street near a children's playground.
The boy had no choice but to comply with the man's demands, and he experienced humiliation, fear and resentment as a result, according to the case materials. His mother reported the incident to the prosecutor's office, which opened an inquiry that confirmed her account.
Court's ruling
Having reviewed the case, the court found that the man was obliged to compensate the boy for the harm caused, taking into account the moral and psychological suffering he endured. The claim had been brought by a prosecutor acting to protect the interests of the child rather than by the family directly.
Under Russian civil law, courts can award compensation for what is legally termed moral harm, meaning psychological or emotional distress, separately from any physical injury. Such cases are frequently pursued on behalf of minors by prosecutors' offices rather than by the children or their parents alone. Kaliningrad region itself is a Russian exclave on the Baltic coast, bordered by Poland and Lithuania and separated from the rest of the country.
Separate compensation case
Lenta.ru also reported that a court in Russia's Sverdlovsk region had previously ordered a company called SpetsTekhZakaz to pay 1.28 million rubles to a seamstress over a workplace accident.
