Rather than sympathise with Tikhomirov, Instagram followers turned on him, with many not taking kindly to his illegal antics.
"In a time where we've declared a climate emergency and we have less than 12 years to sort the planet out, here you are destroying a beautiful part of the world for an Instagram photo," someone wrote.
"This is incredibly disrespectful, after you got fined by the police for banned off-road driving you pose by the rental car at the scene. Shame on you," another person said.
"What the hell. It is illegal to drive off-road in Iceland," another Instagram user said.
"You have damaged a piece of land that will take years to recover and it is not cool at all bragging about it. I hope you will enjoy paying the huge fine the police gave you. Learn something from this. We allowed you to travel through our country and see the best of the nature. Respect it please."
Some users called for Tikhomirov to be banned from Iceland, saying he was "not welcome".
In other posts, Tikhomirov was called an "idiot" and "degenerate".
The Russian Embassy in Reykjavík even issued a statement in the wake of the drama, asking Russians to respect Icelandic laws and customs, Insider reported.
Tikhomirov has since addressed the issue in a post on Instagram Stories, saying he didn't know it was illegal to drive off-road in Iceland.
He also accused locals of throwing plastic bottles at his car when they recognised him from coverage of the story.
"You think I'm an animal? I think you guys are animals," he wrote in English.
Ecological damage caused by overtourism has become a problem in Iceland, which is experiencing a surge in interest from visitors.
Some 2.3 million tourists were expected to visit the Nordic country in 2017, swamping its population of just 335,000.
Recently, Icelandic environmental officials closed a canyon called Fjaðrárgljúfur to protect it from huge crowds of Justin Bieber fans who wanted to visit it after the star featured it in his I'll Show You music video.
