On Monday (5th of December), lawyer G.Batbayar and the family of S.Amarmandakh, frontman of the group ‘Khar Sarnai’ (Black Rose) met officials from the Russian Embassy in Mongolia regarding the assault on the singer. They demanded that the Russian Embassy employee be handed over to Mongolian law enforcement agencies. They warned that if the Russian Embassy in Mongolia neglects the issue, they will have no recourse other than appeal to international organisations. At the meeting, a senior secretary of the Russian Embassy in Ulaanbaatar said, ‘We are ready to cooperate on this issue. We will also charge the employee in question following the decision if the court. The Russian Embassy is also providing an apology to S.Amarmandakh’.
S.Amarmandakh, had been brutally beaten by a Russian embassy employee at a ‘Happy Ulaanbaatar’ public celebration on 22nd of November. The Russian allegedly attacked the musician after the event, striking him on the head with a bottle. A group of men then began to kick S.Amarmandakh as he fell to the ground and lost consciousness. The group was eventually stopped by security personnel, the incident was reportedly captured by security cameras.
The reason for the attack appears to have been the fact that 'Khar Sarnai' often uses the symbol of the swastika, which, for them, is intrinsically linked to Mongolia's Buddhist identity. At the concert S.Amarmandakh was wearing a Mongolian deel with a prominent swastika motif. This is what appears to have triggered the incident. For Mongolians, it is a positive cultural symbol; for Russians, and many nations, however, it represents the evil and tyranny of Hitler's Germany and the greatest tragedy of the last century. In the Soviet Union, it is estimated that 20 million died in WW2.
