Pennsylvania couple charged with ethnic intimidation for harassing Russian man
PITTSBURGH – Police in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, have charged a couple with ethnic intimidation after photos and videos show them harassing a Russian man.
Pittsburgh police told WPXI that cell phone video and photos show architect Robert Pfaffmann and his partner, Lisa Marie Haabestad, targeting a Russian man in their neighborhood since late February.
Investigators said the pair targeted Russian native Vasily Potanin at his home by throwing bags of rice with explicit messages condemning Russian President Vladimir Putin and holding up a sign that said, “Leave Our Neighborhood” while shouting threats.
“They assume that just because of my nationality I must be profiting from that. I’m Putin’s spy. I work for him. All this nonsense,” Potanin told WPXI. “You can be a patriot of your country but not love the government. I don’t think the government is doing anything other than pretty evil stuff at the moment.”
Potanin’s father is a Russian business oligarch who served as Russia’s first deputy prime minister in the 1990s, WPXI reported. Potanin himself came to the United States nearly a decade ago and is in Pittsburgh studying at Carnegie Mellon University.
