«What kind of Russian are you?!» Belarusian in Crimea beat an Armenian because he had long hair. And because he looked like a homosexual
Daniil Bahdanau was not even imprisoned — it’s a common situation.
In occupied Yalta, Belarusian Daniil Bahdanau was convicted of hooliganism. The judge limited the sentence to a suspended term.
The incident occurred in December 2024 near the «Favorit» store in the village of Livadia, near Yalta. Bahdanau, along with two acquaintances — all three drunk — approached a salesperson, a young man with long hair and a beard. The young man, as it turned out during the trial, is a citizen of Russia, but his father is Armenian.
The company didn’t like this. First, they harassed him about his haircut — «we’ll cut it now», then they started questioning his orientation, and finally ended with a national question: «What kind of Russian are you?!» — they shouted at him, adding, according to the victim’s mother’s testimony, the word «churka».
The verbal altercation escalated into a fight. Bahdanau was the first to punch the young man in the face, then he threw him onto the asphalt using a hold, and together with his friend, inflicted, as the court calculated, about twenty blows — with fists and feet to the head and torso.
A random passerby, a 68-year-old man in a motorcycle helmet, head of a folk vocal ensemble, stood up for the victim. He was also beaten for this: Bahdanau’s friend knocked him to the ground and repeatedly kicked him in the head — the helmet cracked, and the victim himself experienced worsening eyesight and insomnia after the fight.
The fight was only stopped by an alarm button: the salesperson called the Rosgvardiya (Russian National Guard), the mother called the police. According to witnesses, the detained aggressors also had to be calmed down — they swore at police officers and passersby, and showed the middle finger.
The entire incident was captured by the store’s surveillance camera. Bahdanau identified himself in the video, wrote a confession, and fully admitted guilt. Later, he apologized to the beaten Armenian.
The court classified the actions of the Belarusian under Part 2 of Article 213 of the Criminal Code of Russia — «hooliganism, associated with resistance to a person stopping a violation of public order». This is a serious crime, which entails up to five years of imprisonment.
However, the judge sentenced Bahdanau to one year and six months probation, with the same probationary period. His obligations include reporting to the inspection once a month.
