A young man shot his way out of a Moscow mental institution in a bid to ‘rescue’ his pregnant girlfriend. The pair turned themselves in on the second day of a police search – both to confess, and to sue the girl’s mother.

­The assault, they claimed, was a desperate move to free the woman from the horrors of the mental ward and the imposed effects of heavy medication. They claimed the hospitalization was forced, and orchestrated by the woman’s mother. The couple has already been dubbed the ‘Russian Romeo and Juliet,’ and their story is being closely watched by a fascinated public.