Moscow's Tagansky District Court has sentenced three activists accused of flying a Ukrainian flag from a landmark Stalin-era skyscraper to 10 days in custody, the RIA Novosti news agency reported, quoting a spokeswoman for the court.
The spokeswoman, Ksenia Lyapina, said that the detainees had been found guilty of insubordination to authority, RIA Novosti wrote.
The three men — Alexei Domnikov, Alexander Sharapov and Alexander Khorrshr — were detained by Moscow police on Monday and accused of affixing a Ukrainian flag to the residential skyscraper on the city's Kotelnicheskaya Naberezhnaya.
A Russian flag with the European Union circle of stars added was flown from scaffolding on an opposing tower.
The news portal OVD Info reported Monday that a total of five people may have been involved in the stunt, marking the second anniversary of the start of Ukraine's Euromaidan protests which culminated in the ouster of the country's Moscow-backed former President Viktor Yanukovych in February 2014.
The Vedomosti newspaper reported Wednesday that the three men belonged to the “Unity of Equals” movement, whose Facebook page describes it as “a grassroots initiative opposing the abuse of state power.”
