Russian in custody
Molotov cocktail flies on Lenin’s mausoleum
07/20/2023, 10:17 p.m
And another incident at Lenin’s mausoleum: this time nobody tries to steal his body like in February, but an incendiary device flies in the direction of the tomb. The suspected thrower was arrested and taken into custody.
A man has been arrested in Moscow for allegedly attacking Lenin’s mausoleum on Red Square with an incendiary device. A court in the Tagansky district ordered the man to be held in custody for two months while he awaited trial, according to the Russian news agency Ria Novosti. If convicted, the 37-year-old faces up to seven years in prison for “hooliganism.”
According to Russian media, the man was arrested on Monday evening in front of the mausoleum where the embalmed body of Soviet founder Lenin is laid out. Accordingly, he had previously thrown a Molotov cocktail in the direction of the building. The court did not name a motive for the crime.
Already in May a man had tried to attack the mausoleum in the same way. In February, a drunk attempted to steal Lenin’s body. The man reportedly climbed over the barriers in front of the mausoleum and tried to enter the heavily guarded building outside the Kremlin walls. He was arrested at the entrance. Paramedics diagnosed the man with a mental disorder due to alcoholism.
The mausoleum of the communist theorist, who died in 1924, was considered an important sight in Soviet times and millions of people visited the memorial. After the collapse of the Soviet Union there were attempts to bury Lenin in a normal grave. The plans were never implemented.
The future of the revolutionary’s corpse is regularly debated in Russia. President Vladimir Putin spoke out against Lenin’s funeral in 2019.