A farmer who dumped a "big pile of manure" outside a state bank in Russia's third-largest city to protest against the banking system has been fined 11,000 rubles ($200), a local court said in a statement.
But the farmer, identified in news reports as Novosibirsk region resident Alexander Bakshayev, wasn't fined for the dump, but rather for violating a law on single-person protests, which states that such protests can only be conducted between 7 a.m. and 10 p.m.
The court statement noted that Bakshayev began his protest at 6:54 a.m. The statement doesn't say anything about a punishment for leaving a huge pile of dung on the doorstep of a branch of state banking giant Sberbank. It was not immediately clear whether there is a law against leaving animal excrement on the street.
A local news site, Sovietskaya Sibir, reported last week that the farmer was fined an additional 5,500 rubles ($100) because he had a dirty license plate and drove past a "no entry" sign.
Photos from the protest uploaded online by media outlets show Bakshayev with the pile of manure and straw and signs saying "Bankers are enemies of the people" and "Down with credit slavery." Media outlets have dubbed Bakshayev the "Manure Avenger."
The court's statement came out two weeks ago, but it was apparently some time before news agencies caught wind of it.
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