A beachgoer in southern Russia has faced a backlash of online criticism for reportedly throwing a stone at a woman for failing to stand for the national anthem.
Some reactions on social media included:
"Even when Jesus told those who considered themselves without sin to cast the first stone, no one did so. What is happening now, people?"
"Doesn't the DJ have anything to do with this? Who provoked this? As always with people, the consequences are deemed more important than the causes."
"This is a really aggressive person. It is possible he is psychologically ill. They should have called the police. He could attack anyone."
"I believe the DJ is in obvious breach of the federal law 'on the national anthem of the Russian Federation,' insofar as the beach is no place to display this state symbol."
"In my opinion, he's just drunk."
The incident supposedly took place at a bar in the Black Sea resort of Anapa when a DJ asked for "all those who love their homeland to stand up [for the anthem] and throw stones at those who don't," according to an account posted on Facebook by the woman's sister, Natalya Zakharova.
As the woman remained seated, she was approached by a middle-aged man who hurled verbal abuse and threw a stone at her, said Zakharova, who uploaded pictures of the alleged offender with the words: "I attach photos of the bastard."
The incident prompted an overwhelmingly negative reaction on social media networks.
"Throwing stones at a defenseless woman? The motherland should know its heroes!" one user said in a Facebook comment.
"It's fascism, baby," wrote another user. "In Germany it also started with rising for the national anthem and ended with Jews being given a star."
While some pointed to the role of the DJ in the incident, others questioned if it had even taken place at all.
"To write such posts and furthermore to repost — you can only do this if you saw [the incident] with your own eyes and heard it with your own ears!" one user wrote in response to several virulent messages posted to Facebook.
For a small number of people, however, the online reaction appeared to be much ado about nothing: "Could she not have just stood up?" asked one user.
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