Novaya Europe analysed over 120,000 reports from Russia’s Investigative Committee as well as 5,000 media stories to understand who exactly is dying in police custody and how the war in Ukraine has served to amplify state violence.
After recent protests in support of jailed political activist Fail Alsynov in the central Russian republic of Bashkortostan, one of the protesters, Rifat Dautov, died in a police van on 26 January. State-controlled media claimed the cause of death was surrogate alcohol poisoning.
Torture and police violence have long been well-known issues in Russia, and as there is no requirement for the police to disclose deaths that occurred in custody, it is only thanks to the efforts of the media or third party initiatives that such incidents become public knowledge at all.
Though the authorities attempt to minimise public discussion of such incidents, last year was the worst in terms of deadly police violence in seven years, according to Novaya Europe’s calculations, with at least 70 people dying in detention centres or immediately after visiting a police station — double the figure from the previous year.