A man who was fined for leaving a pig's head near a mosque in Adygea was sent to a pre-trial detention center on charges of treason

The Maikop City Court sent a man to a pre-trial detention center on charges of treason. As indicated in the message on the court’s website, he is charged with carrying out tasks to “discredit the authorities” in Russia, including the incident with a pig’s head being planted on the territory of the mosque in the village of Kozet.

According to investigators, he, being an opponent of the war in Ukraine, decided to cooperate with representatives of a telegram channel, the name of which was not specified. Investigators claim that there are posts that “discredit the authorities” in Russia and “contain false information” about the actions of the Russian army in Ukraine.

As the court said, in 2025 the man contacted the channel administrator and received an offer to continue communication in the WhatsApp messenger. There he indicated his name and his region, and then received the task, the investigation believes. To carry it out, he filmed railway stations, the name of which was not specified, as well as the access roads to them.

In the summer of 2025, he received an order to set fire to a locomotive and instructions on how to create an incendiary mixture - but he refused to fulfill the request, citing the increased security regime at the stations. However, he saved the instructions in the messenger for “possible future use,” the court said.

In early September 2025, a man threw a pig's head onto the mosque grounds and filmed it. According to investigators, this was also a task - this time with the goal of “inciting interethnic and interfaith disagreements.” For its implementation, the performer was paid $500, the court said. On September 14, security forces detained a man at his home.

In the court message, the man is identified as “accused Shch.”; his full name is not given. Mediazona found on the website of court district No. 1 of the Takhtamukay district of Adygea the text of the decision dated December 5, 2025 in the criminal case for insulting the feelings of believers, initiated due to the episode with the pig's head. The details of the defendant are hidden in it, but on the court’s website there is only one case file under the same article with a decision dated December 5 - Andrei Shcherbakov is listed as the accused in it.

The decision of the magistrate’s court states that Shcherbakov bought a pig’s head at the “My Meat” store, after which he drove his car to the mosque in the village of Kozet and hung the head on the entrance gate of the fence surrounding the mosque’s territory. For this episode, the magistrate court fined Shcherbakov 50 thousand rubles.