Russian police to investigate video of preschool principal forcing child who ‘said he hated Russia’ to kiss the ground

A video posted to the YouTube channel Typical Krasnodar showed a preschool principal forcing a young child to get down on his knees and kiss the ground. The principal, whose name is reportedly Emma Milner, said the boy was difficult to work with and had said he “hated Russia.” In the video, Milner can be heard telling him to kiss “the soil that feeds and waters him” before pushing his head toward the ground. The principal subsequently gave a short speech to the young children and caretakers around her about nationalism and the pride they should take in being Russian.

Alexey Nekrasov, the director of the local government’s education department, told RBC that the principal would be fired “on the next business day.” Today marks the beginning of a series of May holidays in Russia. Tatiana Kovaleva, a children’s rights official in Krasnodarsky Krai, told the radio station Govorit Moskva that an official investigation would follow, and State Duma deputy Svetlana Bessarab added that she had taken the situation “under her personal control.”