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Russian Fighter Viacheslav Datsik in Prison Again, on Hunger Strike

The infamous 'Red Tarzan' adds to his ever-growing criminal record.

Earlier in May, we reported on the newly freed Viacheslav Datsik and his extracurricular activities. Datsik had only been released from prison two months prior, a jail term which came about after his involvement in a series of armed robberies on mobile phone shops in St. Petersburg back in 2007. His stay was then extended after escaping a psychiatric hospital where he was held under duress from the local authorities—along with a load of other classic Datsik craziness.

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Upon his release, there was talk Datsik wanted to get back to competing in mixed martial arts. Though, his mother, Svetlana, said he wanted to become a public defender of sorts having suffered what he perceived as harsh treatment from those in charge at Krasnoyarsk prison. "He plans to become a human rights activist," she said. "To do this he must first finish law school. Viacheslav is engaged in the protection of the rights of prisoners and he wishes to become a paralegal."

Her son, known as Red Tarzan, agreed: "For all of my time in prison, I was constantly faced with the lawlessness of the local administration and management of the IR-31 [Krasnoyarsk prison]. This unwarranted conclusion was in the form of my solitary confinement and restriction, and in some cases, obstruction in communicating with relatives and my lawyer. I would also say that I was a witness to the torture of some prisoners. It is for these reasons that I have applied to the prosecutor's office."

Given his mental state, Datsik's perception of justice is a tad skewed to that of the average human being. Alongside his dear friend, Stanislav "Stas" Baretsky, a Russian quasi-celebrity, Datsik raided brothels and apprehend sex workers by marching them down the streets naked—behavior which led to the local police to "keep their eye on" him.

Performing his self-imposed "duties" under the guise of morality, the police largely left Datsik to get on with it. However, the police were alerted further when one of the women exposed the true extent of his activities. Injured by Datsik, she claimed Red Tarzan beat and robbed her of 52,000 roubles and her mobile phone.

Just a week after our report hit the Internet, the man who at one-time beat Andrei Arlovski was arrested after a woman escaped one of his hotel, as reported by Russian news outlet 5TV.

According the report, Datsik and his group stormed a Petrograd hotel and kicked in the door to one of its rooms, before grabbing a sleeping woman—who he wrongly deemed to be a sex worker—by the hair and wrestled her to the corridor in order to strip her down and march her down the street. However, this woman escaped Red Tarzan's clutches and called the police, who apprehended Datsik after he was detained by the hotel's hardy manager.

On May 19th, Datsik was charged for "illegal penetration into dwelling" (trespassing to you and me), extortion and for beating in relation to the assaults he was so openly braggadocios about, though the extent of his actions weren't known at the time as Russian news outlets covered his role as a "public defender."

Still defending and standing behind his actions, Datsik has since went on hunger strike—a protest he is undertaking due to a perceived "lack of understanding" from the police according to saint-petersburg.ru. Investigator Catherine Lurie petitioned to the St. Petersburg courts to extend Datsik's stay in custody and it looks like the Russian will have to go without food for a considerable amount of extra time—Lurie's motion was granted and Datsik will now remain detained until November. This is the second time his stay in jail has been extended as he was initially due to stay in prison until July 18th.