Man arrested for cooking BBQ over eternal flame for fallen Russian soldiers

Russian faces charges after video goes viral online

Eternal flame war memorials are commonplace across Russia and also popular targets for online pranks (Absolute Null/Flickr)

A man has reportedly been arrested after he was caught using an eternal flame monument to Russian soldiers who died in the Second World War as a barbecue.  

A video shared on Russian social media on Thursday showed the unidentified older man crouching down and holding a skewer of meat over the ever-burning fire in the Caspian Sea town of Derbent.  

“No need for coal,” the man says to someone else off camera with a grin as he squatted amid roses scattered at the feet of a statue of a grieving mother in the town’s park dedicated to “military glory”.  

But according to the state-run TASS news agency, officials in Derbent have now detained the man and are preparing administrative charges against him.  

The exact details of the charges he will face have not yet been disclosed by the authorities in the North Caucasus semi-autonomous republic of Dagestan.  

“The identity of this citizen was established, he turned out to be a local resident,” TASS quoted a city spokesperson saying.  

“He was taken to the department of internal affairs in Derbent and a protocol on an administrative offense was drawn up.”

Dozens of Russian cities have World War 2 eternal flame memorials to the millions who died fighting in what is known as the Great Patriotic War.

In recent years it has become relatively common for pranksters online to film themselves roasting food, dancing or even putting out the flames.