Police have detained a man in the Moscow region for shoving over random passersby and posting videos of the attacks on YouTube.
The man, identified as Alexei Makeyev, may face criminal charges over the assaults, but police said in a statement that he would first undergo a psychiatric evaluation, since it has already been established that he is being treated by a psychiatrist.
Two of the videos posted on his YouTube channel — "Alextime" — show him shoving over an elderly woman and a young child and screaming curse words at them as they look on in confusion.
Makeyev says in his description of the video that "the old lout saw that I was running (and by that time I had already run 4 kilometers), looked at me, turned around and kept walking in such a way that would close off the sidewalk to me as much as possible. So what was I supposed to do, run through the snow drifts and potholes, or should the old rake have just moved aside?"
According to Vesti.ru, Makeyev is already well-known in the town of Elektrostal, where he lives. Residents tend to cross to the other side of the street when they see him coming.
Despite his aggressive behavior, however, residents of Elektrostal never filed a complaint against him. The attacks came to the attention of police only after journalists noticed the bizarre videos on YouTube.
An investigation is under way and Makeyev's punishment has yet to be determined.
Warning 18+: This video contains curse words in Russian. The video shows Makeyev pushing an old woman who he says made a point to get in his way.
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