Russian teen jailed for 4 years for ‘desecrating’ portrait

A Moscow court has sentenced a teenager to four years in prison for urinating on the portrait of a World War II veteran, prosecutors and press reports said Friday.

Prosecutors said 19-year-old Matvey Yuferov had in late November “desecrated” a display at a memorial to World War II veterans, filmed his “criminal actions” and posted them online.

He was found guilty under Russia’s law against the “rehabilitation of Nazism”.

During the trial, which lasted less than a month, prosecutors requested a sentence of five years for Yuferov — the maximum penalty.

News website Mediazona, which specialises in covering court cases, said Yuferov had urinated on the portrait.

Yuferov admitted that he was drunk at the time and regretted his actions, Mediazona said.

The Soviet victory over Nazi Germany in 1945 is a pillar of national pride in Russia, used by the Kremlin to stir patriotic sentiment and rebuff criticism of the USSR and its army.

In March — after jailed Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny was found guilty of defaming a war veteran — Russia passed a law banning insults agsainst World War II veterans.