Russian shot as debate on Kant turns violent

Two Russians struck up a late-night discussion of the merits of German philosopher Immanuel Kant, only for the exchange to grow so heated that one pulled out a gun and shot the other in the head, police said Monday. The incident occurred after the two men got talking in a queue to buy beer at an outdoor stall late Sunday in the southern city of Rostov-on-Don, the city's police service said on its website. The two strangers "started ar guing about the works and merits of Immanuel Kant", police said. "They decided to work out which of them was a bigger fan of the said philosopher." The beer-fuelled admirers of the influential 18th-century thinker, whose home town of Koenigsberg is now Russia's westernmost city Kaliningrad, then resorted to fisticuffs, police said. The brawl escalated and one of the men "pulled a pistol out of his pocket and shot his opponent several times" before fleeing. Police later detained the 26-year-old gunman, who was using a licensed weapon. He was charged with causing serious bodily harm. The 28-year-old victim was hospitalised with gunshot wounds to the head but his life was not in danger.