under observation
Preventive detention, combined with other pressure from the police, affected the lives of some of its targets, saying they felt driven to leave Russia.
Luba Krutenko, a 32-year-old architect who was under police sight because of two prior arrests for protesting, said police showed up at her home seven or eight times in March and April last year. In early March, they came three times in two days.
“They were just warning me, documents saying that I should not attend rallies and if I do, a criminal case can be opened,” she said.
To avoid confrontations, he stopped answering the door. Then they started calling him.
During a phone call in April, a police officer told her they knew she was at the house. “They told me they could see the footage from the camera at the entrance of my building and knew I was inside,” she said. She showed Reuters screenshots of several missed calls from police and a text message that said they were standing outside her home.
She stopped answering the phone and went on holiday to the city of Onega in northern Russia. When she returned to Moscow on 6 May, police were waiting for her on the platform as she got off the train.
“They knew which car I was in because they were waiting right outside,” she said. Krutenko showed Reuters a video of the encounter. The police asked him to sign a document warning him not to resist. Krutenko shared a copy of the signed document and said he signed six such documents during separate encounters with the police last year.
The next encounter took place three days later on Russia’s Victory Day just after he entered a Moscow Metro station. Two police officers approached, asked him to show his ID, and informed him that the security camera at the subway’s payment gate had recognized him. They told him that he was on a wanted list and took him to a police point at a metro station. After about 40 minutes, two more officers came and told him that he was being taken into custody and would be taken to the police station. He said one officer had a machine gun.
On being detained at the police station, demanded an explanation. She told an officer that they were violating her rights. “I was furious. I told him ‘You’re keeping me here. It’s my weekend. I have plans with friends.’ Krutenko said the officer replied that people like him have no authority and he should Another police officer told her they were detaining her because an anti-war protest was planned in the city center that day and they had a list of potential protesters – which included her – whom they were trying to prevent from participating.
She was let go after about three hours, with a further warning that she would risk going to jail if she was accused of protesting again.
Describing the repeated encounters, she said, “Because the police are present in your life all the time, it makes it unpredictable.” “You feel that you can be detained at any moment.”
The risk of surveillance and detention made him decide to leave Russia in September. She now lives in Bonn, Germany, where she is in the process of completing an integration course.
On 9 May, the same day Krutenko was detained, a police officer approached 27-year-old courier Sergei Pinchuk seconds after he entered the Moscow Metro. Pinchuk, who that day was dressed in blue and yellow, the colors of the Ukrainian flag, said police had an electronic device with about 10 photographs of him, all of which appeared to be taken by subway security cameras on different dates. There are
At a nearby police station, a detective pushed her into a wall, grabbed her by the neck and called her name, she said.
A month earlier, Pinchuk stood alone in front of the Kremlin building carrying a sign with the words ‘353 Criminal Code of Russia’. Stop Putin,’ referencing a Russian law stating that waging an aggressive war is punishable by up to 20 years in prison. The detective asked about this. “They said ‘Why did you do this? These are difficult times for our country.’ She said the detective also threatened to put her in jail for years and cause problems for her family.
In mid-August, Pinchuk and his friend climbed a cell tower in their hometown of Naro-Fominsk, southwest of Moscow, and planted a Ukrainian flag on top. The next day, when Pinchuk is visiting his parents, his brother calls and informs him that the police have stopped by Pinchuk’s house and are looking for him. A few hours later, Pinchuk was at the airport, catching the first flight to Tbilisi, Georgia. Later, the police called his mother and texted his friends asking where he was. He decided to relocate to the United States where he said he felt safe. He now lives in Seattle and is seeking asylum.
Protester Chernyshov, who was detained twice on the same day, left Russia and is in Minneapolis with his wife and son. She decided to leave after police again detained her on the subway on 1 September on her way to work. She said they handcuffed her in a cell overnight and beat her with a stun gun when she asked him to loosen or remove the cuffs. They didn’t allow him to drink or use the bathroom and kept the lights on all night, he said. The next morning, they released him without charge. Chernyshov provided Reuters with photographs of several of his detentions and protests.
More than two weeks later, he said, when he was about to get into his car to return home from the gym, a hooded man sprayed paint in his face. The paint stung his eyes and left marks on his face. After the event, he received an anonymous letter threatening him with harm or imprisonment if he did not stop expressing his political views. The letter had a picture of the attack.
“So I realized that I needed to leave Russia as soon as possible,” he said.