A court in the Siberian city of Krasnoyarsk on Friday ordered a local Cossack organization to make less noise when firing a howitzer heavy-artillery gun during a daily, noontime ceremony on a hill that overlooks the city.
The court ruled that the gunfire can be conducted, but only at a lower volume and within "hygienic norms," according to a statement published by the regional branch of the Federal Consumer Protection Service, which is in charge of overseeing health issues and initiated the court case.
Cossacks — a quasi-militant Slavic ethnic group with communities across Ukraine and southern Russia — have had a resurgence among Russian military and police forces in recent years, after falling out of favor during the Soviet Union for supporting the tsar during the 1917 revolution.
The Cossack group in question reportedly fires a howitzer M-30 every day at Krasnoyarsk's Paraskeva Pyatnitsa Chapel, a popular landmark illustrated on Russia's national 10-ruble banknote. Cossacks revere the site as a strategic point in their conquest of the city from Tatars some 400 years ago.
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