A Russian man's proposal to his girlfriend at a subway station in Moscow turned sour after the gesture saw the pair arrested and charged with petty hooliganism.
The man, who has been identified as "Evgeny," told local news outlet msk1.ru that on November 7, he brought a folding table, chairs, champagne and fruit to Moscow's VDNKh subway station in the region's Ostankinsky district, and invited his girlfriend to eat "dinner" with him. He then got down on one knee and proposed to her.
A video shared on Telegram by independent Russian media outlet Astra shows the couple sitting around a small table on the subway platform. A pineapple and various other snacks can be seen on their table, and they appear to be joined by two passersby, who drink with them.
The next day, Evgeny said he and his fiancée were visited by police at their workplace. He said they were asked to visit their local police station that evening to explain themselves.
"We said that there was no alcohol, everything happened normally and civilly," said Evgeny. The pair wrote explanatory notes, but did not go to the police department.
The next day, the newly engaged couple was driving to work when they were detained and subsequently charged with petty hooliganism.
Evgeny said his fiancée was fined 1,000 rubles ($11), and he spent five days behind bars.
"They said that we were disrupting passenger flow on the platform. For this, it turns out, they sent me to the isolation ward," said Evgeny.
"They tried to handcuff me, I was in shock. I told them that I wouldn't run away anywhere. They tried to take [my] phone away...," he said, adding that he was taken to an "isolation ward."
There was no food or anything there," Evgeny told the news outlet.
He said he doesn't intend to appeal the decision or contact authorities about the matter.
Newsweek has contacted Russia's Foreign Ministry for comment via email.
The Russian legal code identifies two types of hooliganism—petty and criminal.
In 2020, Pyotr Verzilov, an anti-Kremlin activist and associate of the Pussy Riot punk group was convicted by a Moscow court of petty hooliganism for swearing in public. He was jailed for 15 days for the offense, but maintained that he was intentionally provoked by police.
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About the writer
Isabel van Brugen is a Newsweek Reporter based in Kuala Lumpur. Her focus is reporting on the Russia-Ukraine war. Isabel ... Read more
