MOSCOW, April 19 (RIA Novosti) – A man accused of insulting the Russian flag in a central Russian court has been sentenced to a year and three months in jail, prosecutors said on Friday.
Andrei Stupnikov, 28, from the Kirov Region, “removed the tricolor national flag from a flagpole and threw it outside from a window,” the court said.
The incident occurred on December 1, 2012, when Stupnikov attended a court session “while drunk.” He insulted the national flag “due to his personal hostile attitude to Russian justice” after the judge made a decision which Stupnikov said was “unjustified.”
Given the fact, that Stupnikov, a repeated offender, committed the crime shortly after being released from jail and had already received multiple administrative penalties, “the court decided to impose imprisonment as punishment for him,” the statement said.
