Russia detains suspect in beating of Russian Academy of Sciences scientist Nikita Zezin. He died shortly after.

A 38-year-old Yekaterinburg resident has been detained over the beating of Russian Academy of Sciences scientist Nikita Zezin, Russia’s Investigative Committee reported.

Investigators have charged him with hooliganism under Part 2 of Article 213 of Russia’s Criminal Code. According to the agency, the suspect “used physical force” against Zezin and his deputy, Alexander Shanin, during a conflict that broke out on Glavnaya Street in Yekaterinburg on July 13. The Investigative Committee noted that Zezin and Shanin had previously “stopped a violation being committed by minors.”

Zezin died in the hospital from a heart ailment after the attack, the Investigative Committee added.

Zezin directed the Ural Federal Agrarian Center of the Ural Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS), held the rank of corresponding member of the RAS, and was a doctor of agricultural sciences.

Vyacheslav Vegner, a deputy in the Sverdlovsk region’s legislative assembly, reported the beating. He said Zezin and Shanin were inspecting experimental fields and crops on July 13 when they came across children ages 8 to 10 whose all-terrain vehicles had gotten stuck in one of the fields. The children had been “racing across the crops and destroying them” beforehand. Zezin and Shanin approached them, got their parents’ phone numbers, called them, and explained that the children were alone in the field, that their vehicles were stuck in the mud, and that they would drive them to the institute and hand them over there. However, four SUVs showed up at the institute, and the driver of one began beating Zezin, then Shanin. Zezin died in the hospital a few days later. Officials listed a heart attack as the cause of death, though the scientist’s relatives believe the beating triggered it.