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Russian Nationalist Detained For Attack on Sturges' Exhibition

Valery Sharifulin / TASS

A Moscow court on Tuesday handed an ultranationalist eight days behind bars for throwing unidentified liquid on a U.S. photographer’s exhibition in Moscow last week.

Alexander Petrunko, an activist of the SERB ultranationalist group, was detained last year for throwing a bottle filled with urine when the “No Embarrassment" exhibition first opened in September 2016. Jock Sturges' photography was closed two weeks after opening after Russian conservatives accused it of showcasing child pornography.


										 					Alexander Petrenko in womens clothes on a Jock Sturges’ exhibition “No Embarrassment 2.0”/ Moskva News Agency
Alexander Petrenko in womens clothes on a Jock Sturges’ exhibition “No Embarrassment 2.0”/ Moskva News Agency

Petrunko was charged with petty hooliganism for Friday's crime, a Moscow court spokesperson was cited as saying Tuesday by the Interfax news agency.

SERB made headlines over the weekend for disrupting a film about Ukraine at the ArtDocFest film festival. The group's supporters sprayed a pungent gas into the auditorium and covered the projector, causing the auditorium to be evacuated.

One of the group’s activists told The Moscow Times on Monday that the film “showed hatred for Russia and Russians.”

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