OREANDA-NEWS. The Kaliningrad garrison military Court sentenced two servicemen of the Baltic Fleet to fines under the article of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation on insulting the feelings of believers. They washed their shoes under a tap with holy water on the territory of the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour in Kaliningrad, the Russian newspaper “Kommersant” reported on Tuesday, March 30.

The actions of these two young men were watched by three of their comrades, one of them was filming what was happening on a phone camera. In September 2020, this video was posted on the Internet and caused a public outcry. Then the head of Chechnya, Ramzan Kadyrov, initiated a check, that showed, that the young people in the video were not natives of Chechnya, but conscripts from Dagestan.

Former contractor Rasul Saykhanov was sentenced to a fine of 1.3 thousand dollars, and the court took into account, that he publicly apologized in a social network, donated 131 dollars to St. Andrew's Church, apologized to the Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia and the Kaliningrad Diocese of the Russian Orthodox Church, and also actively helped homeless animals in Kaliningrad and regularly donated funds to an animal shelter and a veterinary clinic.

The second participant of the video was fined by the court for 2.6 thousand dollars. Conscript Jamaldin Magomedov said, that he simply wiped the shoes from the dust, and did not attach any importance to the mosaic icon over the crane. According to him, he did not know, that holy water flowed from the taps, and there was no information about the restrictions on the use of water in the chapel. After learning about the scandal over the video, Magomedov also publicly apologized on the Internet, donated 131 dollars to an Orthodox parish and provided sponsorship – more than 263 dollars – to an orphanage.