A Moscow court has sentenced a Kenyan citizen to two years in a settlement colony for extinguishing an Eternal Flame memorial with a snowball.
The ruling was reported by Russian news agency RIA Novosti following the incident at a monument honoring fallen World War II soldiers in Troitsk, a town located in the Moscow district. The defendant admitted guilt, expressed repentance in court, and has launched an appeal seeking a more lenient sentence.
Defense lawyer Natalia Pavlova stated that her client could be set free within a few months because of the duration of his pre-trial custody. He has been held in a pre-trial detention center since late December 2025, and Russian sentencing rules calculate each day in pre-trial detention as equivalent to two days in a settlement colony.
Incident and diplomatic apology
According to case files, the foreign national threw a snowball into the Eternal Flame on Tekstilshchiki Street in late December 2025, which immediately put out the fire. The memorial site is dedicated to veterans of the Great Patriotic War, the official designation used in Russia for the Eastern Front of World War II.
Russian authorities arrested the man and charged him with desecration of military burials, a criminal offense covering damage or disrespect to war graves and monuments. Following his arrest, his wife provided a charitable financial contribution to assist with the ongoing maintenance and care of the memorial site.
The Embassy of Kenya also intervened in the matter by sending an official letter to the leadership of Moscow to deliver formal apologies for the misdeed committed by its citizen.
Similar cases in Russia
The sentencing comes amid a wider crackdown by Russian law enforcement on acts directed at war monuments across the country. In a separate recent case in the Yaroslavl region, investigators opened a criminal investigation against a group of women who staged a drunken performance near an Eternal Flame, charging them with desecrating a memorial monument.
