Migrant families to be deported from Russia after their kids throw snow at Eternal Flame

On Tuesday, December 12, a court in St. Petersburg made a decision to deport two migrant families from Russia after their children put down the Eternal Flame by throwing snow into the memorial.

Three people were brought to administrative responsibility: Abror Ismoilova, Nargiz Ismoilova and Gulzat Batyrova. It became known that they did not have any migration registration documents.

Four people were found guilty under Part 3 of Article 18.8 (Violation by a foreign citizen or stateless person of the rules of entry into the Russian Federation or of the regime of stay (residence) in the Russian Federation) of the Code of Administrative Offences of the Russian Federation. The defendants in the case admitted their guilt.

In addition to expulsion from the country, the defendants will have to pay fines in the amount of 5,000 rubles.

After the court's ruling, the parents of the teenagers were placed in a special centre for foreign citizens subject to deportation. Their children were accommodated at specialised institutions. The eleven-year-old boy who threw snow into the fire of the Eternal Flame monument was placed in a police detention centre for juvenile offenders.

The perpetrators were identified as 11-year-old schoolboy, and two other boys aged 10 and 14 years old. All are citizens of a post-Soviet country (the place of their origin remains unknown).

The incident took place on Sunday, December 10, on Lenin Avenue in Krasnoe Selo (a St. Petersburg suburban town). The CCTV footage shows children playing with snow near the memorial for some time. At some point, one of them picks up snow in his hands and throws it on the fire causing it to go out. On Monday, December 11, two brothers from one family, as well as a boy from another family, were detained and handed over to their parents.