Man arrested for trying to firebomb Lenin’s Moscow mausoleum

A man has been detained in Moscow after throwing a Molotov cocktail at the notorious Russian revolutionary Vladimir Lenin’s tomb in the Red Square in a failed attempt to set it on fire, according to local reports.

The suspect, identified as 37-year-old Konstantin Stachukov, from the city of Chita, was taken into custody Monday, according to multiple Russian news outlets.

At around 10 p.m. local time, Stachukov approached the heavily guarded crypt and hurled a bottle containing a flammable liquid at the imposing building, according to Telegram news channels Baza and Shot, as well as the state news agency RIA Novosti.

The Molotov cocktail hit the ground outside the landmark and caught fire, but the red-granite tomb was not damaged.

Stachukov was apprehended by police officers at the scene and charged with “failing to comply with the legal demand of a law enforcement official.”

The firebombing suspect was hauled off to a police station. There was no immediate word on a possible motive behind the fiery attack.

It was not the first time that Stachukov has targeted Lenin’s final resting place, according to a report.

The 37-year-old had been detained on May 17 after being caught in the Red Square with two bottles of gasoline, but he was not criminally charged at the time, according to the Telegram news outlet 112.

Around the same time, Stachukov was confined to a mental health facility for behaving erratically, reported Mash. It was unclear whether his hospitalization followed the incident in the Red Square.  

In March, Moscow police caught an unhinged man who allegedly tried to enter the Bolshevik firebrand’s mausoleum while ranting that “Vladimir Lenin had to allegedly absolve him of his sins,” reported the state news agency TASS.

A month earlier, a drunk man allegedly tried to snatch Lenin’s embalmed corpse from the tomb.

Lenin’s preserved body has been on near-continuous display in Moscow since shortly after his death in 1924.

The imposing mausoleum, designed in the Egyptian revival style, was built especially to house the founder of the Soviet Union and was completed in 1930.