Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin has issued a statement thanking the leader of a group of Cossacks that was accused of publicly flogging anti-government protesters earlier this year.

The Cossacks, an imperial cavalry force from Russia’s southern steppes, have been revived in a number of patriotic organizations across Russia since the collapse of the Soviet Union.

Sobaynin on Friday thanked Andrei Shustrov, the head of the Central Cossack Battalion, for his "active participation in socially significant public events in Moscow," according to a statement published on the website of Moscow’s City Hall.

Last May, Shustrov had reportedly been part of a group of Cossacks that had been filmed attacking protesters at a rally against President Vladimir Putin’s inauguration in Moscow.