On August 13, blogger Stanislav Dumkin was savagely beaten in Gorky Park, one of Moscow’s most popular central spaces, for “dressing the wrong way”.  The attack was perpetrated by a gang of drunken thugs, one of whom is the son of a popular Russian actor. 

Stanislav Dumkin was an Instagram blogger. He had moved to Moscow a couple of years ago from Saint Petersburg where he had been studying to become a lawyer at the St. Petersburg State University.

On August 13, Stanislav Dumkin was taking a walk in Gorky Park with his friends.  Gorky Park is one of the most visited places in Moscow and is available for anyone and everyone at any time.  He was unexpectedly approached by three young men who were clearly under the influence of alcohol. They took away Dumkin’s hat and afterwards crushed his sunglasses into pieces. The men proceeded to beat Dumkin, who was subsequently hospitalised with a serious head injury and fell into a coma.  After a week of being in a coma, Stalislav failed to regain consciousness and was pronounced dead on August 20.

The news had been announced only on August 25 by Mash (News media holding) via Russian social network VKontakte. Only after the incident being announced online did the investigative committee decide to initiate criminal proceedings for “deliberate infliction of harm”.

Just a day after, Gorky Park official website decided to publish a press release stating: “On the night of August 13, at 00:53 in the region of the Pushkinskaya embankment, Gorky Park an incident took place as a result of which Stanislav Dumkin received a serious head injury. At 1:03 an ambulance arrived at the scene and was witnessed by around 15 onlookers.

On August 27, the investigative committee announced that the suspect had been identified: a man from Moscow, born in 1994 who had been hiding from the investigation. The investigative committee subsequently asked him to appear at the court office. Kornei Makarov, 22, son of the Russian actor Sergey Makarov who starred in the popular TV series “Interns”, an adaptation of the American show “Scrubs”, is the main suspect in the case. On August 29, Kornei Makarov was arrested. In the event that he is found guilty, he could face up to 15 years in prison.

Dumkin’s father commented on his son’s passing: “Stanislav was a very friendly man. He was very calm. He would not get into any conflict. We were very proud of our son.”

Mikhail Khodorkovsky has also commented on the events: “This tragic moment became the most powerful PR-crisis for Gorky Park since the dismissal of its previous director – Olga Zaharova.  The illusion of the safe place for hipsters is gone. Before this particular incident, Gorky Park had been considered as one of the safest places in Moscow – free from drugs and drunk people. The Gorky Park project has been planned and constructed in an European way by Sergey Kapkov – different from all other parks in the country,”

According to Grigory Revzin, with the death of Stanislav Dumkin urban Moscow’s faced the sad reality where the majority of Russia still exists.

There has been a spike in violent deaths in Moscow recently.  Earlier this month young activist Ivan Skripnichenko was attacked by a “pro-Putin thug” as he guarded a makeshift memorial to Boris Nemtsov.  The attacker was supposedly heard saying “what, you don’t like Putin or something?” before he struck Skripnichenko, who later died of his injuries.