Activist Artem Kamardin, who was previously beaten and raped by police officers who came to his home to detain him, was named a suspect in the case of inciting hatred or enmity with the threat of using violence, his attorney Leonid Solovyev said.
Kamardin was hospitalised.
Police officers also superglued stickers onto the face of another activist, Alexandra Popova. They pulled her hair, kicked her, showed her the video of Kamardin’s rape, and threatened to rape her, she said earlier. The activist was diagnosed with a concussion and multiple bruises. She posted a doctor’s report listing off all the injuries she had received on Instagram.
Nikolay Dayneko, a participant of the Mayakovsky poetry readings, was also detained. Like Kamardin, he is suspected of inciting hatred or enmity with the threat of using violence, attorney Leysan Mannapova says. Dayneko was detained the day before during the readings. Police filed charges against him for taking part in an unsanctioned event. The court later fined him to the tune of 20,000 rubles. Right after the hearing, he was detained and taken to the Investigative Committee.
Activist Alexander Menyukov, who was also in the apartment with Kamardin and Popova when the police came, was released from the Investigative Committee after an interrogation. He is a witness in the case of inciting hatred. Meanwhile, another activist Yegor Shtovba became a suspect under the same article. He was detained for 48 hours, OVD-Info, a Russian human rights group that monitors political arrests, reports. According to OVD-Info, doctors documented multiple bruises around his right ear, left wrist and back.
Yesterday, police came to the flat where Kamardin, Popova and Menyukov live. Their attorney was not allowed to go inside due to the police officers carrying out “a room inspection”.
Law enforcement agents “beat Kamardin severely and put a dumbbell in his anal opening”. Afterwards, they made him record a video apology for saying “Glory to Kievan Rus, Novorossiya — suck dick” (or New Russia, this is how the Russian propaganda refers to Ukraine’s southern and eastern regions — translator’s note). He was then taken to a police station and later hospitalised.
Popova said that $600 had disappeared from the flat after the search.
On 25 September, an event known as the Mayakovsky poetry readings took place in Moscow, near the monument to the famous Russian poet Vladimir Mayakovsky. Activists previously stated that September’s readings would be known as “anti-mobilisation” poetry readings. Kamardin participated in yesterday’s readings.