Akimenkov has been held in custody since June 10 of 2012. Currently he is kept in a pre-trial prison in Moscow. He is facing charges of participating in mass riots (article 212 of the Russian Criminal Code) and can be sentenced to up to eight years in prison. He is being accused of throwing a flag pole at a policeman. The only piece of evidence that the indictment is founded upon is the testimony provided by the Special Unit policeman Egorov (the only witness) is the only piece of evidence on which the charge is based. Akimenkov suffers from serious inborn eye diseases such as severe myopia, partial atrophy of the eye nerve and coloboma of the iris. In prison his eyesight has been deteriorating dramatically.