August 15, 2024

No Anti-Wagner Words on the Bus


No Anti-Wagner Words on the Bus
87-year-old Dmitry Grinchy being interrogated by police. OVD-Info, Telegram.

On August 9, two men attacked an 87-year-old man on a Moscow bus after he allegedly said "Killers of women and children!" when the bus was passing a Wagner Group monument. The attackers restrained the retiree and handed him over to the police.

The retiree, Dmitry Grinchy, was standing on the 528 bus when it passed by a memorial to the Wagner Group on Varvarska Street. Then, a middle-aged man with brown hair and glasses began shouting "Get out, b---, f------ fascist, f---." Another man with a balding head and a dark mustache punched Grinchy in the stomach and twisted his arm. A passenger attempted to intervene, but was pushed out with "Move away, woman."

When the bus doors opened near the Lubyanka metro station, the two men dragged the senior citizen to the traffic police by the subway entrance. In a video widely shared on social media, Grinchy can be seen walking in a bent position with his legs tangled together. The attackers told police the senior was cursing at the Wagner Group. Meanwhile, the victim complained about pain in his head and ears.

Security forces took Grinchy to the Kitay-Gorod police station and transferred him to the Basmanny precinct, where the attackers wrote a statement against the victim. The retiree was released soon after.

Grinchy filed a counterclaim for hooliganism, beatings, and the loss of a hearing aid worth R100,000 ($1,152 USD). Journalist Sergey Parkhomenko said one of his readers identified one of the attackers as the lawyer Alexander Golovnin. The attackers told police they were father and son.

In 2017, Grinchy told the Moy GULAG (My GULAG) project that his father was accused of spying for Japan and was executed in 1938. However, new discoveries show that Grinchy's father survived and was released in 1966.

You Might Also Like

Playwright and Director Sentenced
  • July 16, 2024

Playwright and Director Sentenced

The theater director and playwright have been in pre-trial detention for over a year on charges of "justifying terrorism." Now they've been sentenced.
A QR Crackdown
  • December 14, 2023

A QR Crackdown

Moscow bans QR codes on billboards in response to the Russian political opposition.
Like this post? Get a weekly email digest + member-only deals

Some of Our Books

Survival Russian

Survival Russian

Survival Russian is an intensely practical guide to conversational, colloquial and culture-rich Russian. It uses humor, current events and thematically-driven essays to deepen readers’ understanding of Russian language and culture. This enlarged Second Edition of Survival Russian includes over 90 essays and illuminates over 2000 invaluable Russian phrases and words.
Turgenev Bilingual

Turgenev Bilingual

A sampling of Ivan Turgenev's masterful short stories, plays, novellas and novels. Bilingual, with English and accented Russian texts running side by side on adjoining pages.
The Little Golden Calf

The Little Golden Calf

Our edition of The Little Golden Calf, one of the greatest Russian satires ever, is the first new translation of this classic novel in nearly fifty years. It is also the first unabridged, uncensored English translation ever, and is 100% true to the original 1931 serial publication in the Russian journal 30 Dnei. Anne O. Fisher’s translation is copiously annotated, and includes an introduction by Alexandra Ilf, the daughter of one of the book’s two co-authors.
Murder at the Dacha

Murder at the Dacha

Senior Lieutenant Pavel Matyushkin has a problem. Several, actually. Not the least of them is the fact that a powerful Soviet boss has been murdered, and Matyushkin's surly commander has given him an unreasonably short time frame to close the case.
Tolstoy Bilingual

Tolstoy Bilingual

This compact, yet surprisingly broad look at the life and work of Tolstoy spans from one of his earliest stories to one of his last, looking at works that made him famous and others that made him notorious. 
The Latchkey Murders

The Latchkey Murders

Senior Lieutenant Pavel Matyushkin is back on the case in this prequel to the popular mystery Murder at the Dacha, in which a serial killer is on the loose in Khrushchev’s Moscow...
Woe From Wit (bilingual)

Woe From Wit (bilingual)

One of the most famous works of Russian literature, the four-act comedy in verse Woe from Wit skewers staid, nineteenth century Russian society, and it positively teems with “winged phrases” that are essential colloquialisms for students of Russian and Russian culture.
Faith & Humor: Notes from Muscovy

Faith & Humor: Notes from Muscovy

A book that dares to explore the humanity of priests and pilgrims, saints and sinners, Faith & Humor has been both a runaway bestseller in Russia and the focus of heated controversy – as often happens when a thoughtful writer takes on sacred cows. The stories, aphorisms, anecdotes, dialogues and adventures in this volume comprise an encyclopedia of modern Russian Orthodoxy, and thereby of Russian life.
Driving Down Russia's Spine

Driving Down Russia's Spine

The story of the epic Spine of Russia trip, intertwining fascinating subject profiles with digressions into historical and cultural themes relevant to understanding modern Russia. 
Okudzhava Bilingual

Okudzhava Bilingual

Poems, songs and autobiographical sketches by Bulat Okudzhava, the king of the Russian bards. 
Marooned in Moscow

Marooned in Moscow

This gripping autobiography plays out against the backdrop of Russia's bloody Civil War, and was one of the first Western eyewitness accounts of life in post-revolutionary Russia. Marooned in Moscow provides a fascinating account of one woman's entry into war-torn Russia in early 1920, first-person impressions of many in the top Soviet leadership, and accounts of the author's increasingly dangerous work as a journalist and spy, to say nothing of her work on behalf of prisoners, her two arrests, and her eventual ten-month-long imprisonment, including in the infamous Lubyanka prison. It is a veritable encyclopedia of life in Russia in the early 1920s.
Fearful Majesty

Fearful Majesty

This acclaimed biography of one of Russia’s most important and tyrannical rulers is not only a rich, readable biography, it is also surprisingly timely, revealing how many of the issues Russia faces today have their roots in Ivan’s reign.

About Us

Russian Life is a publication of a 30-year-young, award-winning publishing house that creates a bimonthly magazine, books, maps, and other products for Russophiles the world over.

Latest Posts

Our Contacts

Russian Life
73 Main Street, Suite 402
Montpelier VT 05602

802-223-4955