MOSCOW, February 28 (RAPSI) – A judge in Russia’s Yekaterinburg has sentenced Belarusian national Igor Shchuka to one year of community service for an attempt to set a monument honoring the first Russian President Boris Yeltsin on fire, the court’s press-service has told RAPSI.

The defendant was found guilty of attempted vandalism motivated by political, ideological, racial, ethnic or religious hatred. Shchuka pleaded guilty.

According to media reports, on November 7, 2017, the man tried to set the monument located near the Yeltsin Center in Yekaterinburg on fire but was stopped by the center’s guards. Shchuka said that his act was tied to coincide with the 100th anniversary of the October Revolution in Russia. Later, it was revealed that the perpetrator had been on trial for inciting hatred and insulting an authority figure.