Moscow police have detained a man who marred an icon with black ink in Moscow’s Cathedral of Christ the Savior as a protest against the punk group Pussy Riot jailing, a police spokesman said.
The 62-year old man told the police that he was protesting against the Russian Orthodox Church’s position on the Pussy Riot case, adding that he suffers a mental disorder.
According to the Komsomolskaya Pravda daily, the icon attacker is Yury Piotrovsky, a yoga and dance teacher from Munich known for his anti-Christian views.
Three members of the Pussy Riot group were jailed for two years after a protest performance in February at the Cathedral of Christ the Savior over Orthodox Church support for Putin’s return to the Kremlin for a third term.
The Pussy Riot trial sparked international condemnation and several acts of vandalism against the church.