Three arrested after hanging Ukrainian flags atop Kotelnicheskaya Embankment Building in Moscow - source
MOSCOW. Nov 23 (Interfax) - Three people have been arrested after hanging a Ukrainian flag from the scaffolding surrounding the high-rise building on Kotelnicheskaya Embankment, a source in law enforcement agencies told Interfax on Monday.
On Monday five people displayed Ukrainian flags on the scaffolding around the skyscraper. Three of them were arrested by the police and brought to the Tagansky District Police Department.
Interfax has no official confirmation yet of this information.
This is not the first time that this building has come at the center of public attention. On the morning of August 20, 2014, a Ukrainian yellow-blue flag measuring three by six meters was installed on the spire of the Stalin-era skyscraper on Kotelnicheskaya Embankment, the upper point of the star at the top of the spire was painted blue.
Initially, the criminal case was opened on "vandalism" charges. However, later a Moscow police spokesperson said the charges were re-qualified as "hooliganism" and the case was handed over to investigators at the Central District Police Department. It emerged later that young men were formally charged with both.
The defendant pleaded not guilty to the charges of dyeing the star on the skyscraper's spire and displaying the Ukrainian flag. They said that they had found themselves at the scene of crime by accident, while jumping from the roof that is several dozen meters below the spire and the star.
On August 22, 2014, an appeal was launched on social media by a man who referred to himself as a Ukrainian citizen named Hryhoriy (Grisha Mustang Wanted). He said the arrested Russian suspects were innocent and claimed responsibility for the skyscraper incident.