Pro-Navalny protesters detained and threatened: "The regime has shown its teeth"

[Stevicus]

Russian protesters detained at pro-Navalny rallies say police threatened and intimidated them: 'The regime has shown its teeth' - CNN

Moscow (CNN)"Do you know that we can beat you so hard that you will be urinating blood? And there won't be any traces -- you won't be able to prove anything," Peter Sokovykh recalls a police officer screaming into his face as he found himself in a tiny room with six security officers in a St. Petersburg police station.

Just a few hours before this scene, in Russia's second-largest city, Sokovykh was detained on January 31 for taking part in a demonstration in support of jailed Russian opposition figure Alexey Navalny.

Sokovykh says the detention was sudden and harsh: he was checking his phone as someone he believed to be a plainclothes officer pushed him onto the road. Sokovykh said he was then grabbed by his hair and coat by men in protective equipment and dragged into a police van.

They locked up so many protesters that they ran out of space to hold them, forcing many to have to wait crammed on buses for hours.

Sokovykh and several other protesters who spoke with CNN alleged mistreatment by security forces, including violence, threats, intimidation and being crammed in vans or cells. CNN has reached out to the Russian Interior Ministry for comment on allegations of violence and overcrowding. The interior ministry, which oversees police forces in the country, did not respond.

In recent weeks, Russian authorities have detained around 11,000 people at demonstrations to support Navalny, according to OVD-Info, an independent site that monitors arrests.

Some were let go after a few hours. But in Moscow and St. Petersburg, detention centers quickly ran out of space, forcing detainees to wait inside buses for hours on end, without basic necessities.

Sokovykh was finally released but worries that charges can be drawn up against him later.

Ivan Klementyev was out on assignment as a news photographer covering demonstrations in Moscow on January 31 when riot police detained, electro-shocked and clubbed him with batons, splitting his temple open, his wife told CNN. He was then put in a police van and had to wait hours to get medical help, his wife said.

"The regime has shown its teeth"

"You look at those white concrete walls [in Sakharovo] and that's when you get really scared," Kuznetsov said. "You think to yourself: 'That's it. The regime has shown its teeth.' You understand that you have been thrust into a place like this after which you will definitely not go to the rally again. This is full-on hell."

The Kremlin spokesperson said "There are no repressions in Russia" and claimed that they were just enforcing the law against unauthorized rallies.

Footage from Sakharovo detention facility show bleak conditions inside: metal framed bed bunks with no mattresses, an open latrine. There was also no social distancing and few masks -- despite the fact members of Navalny's team have been placed under house arrest for allegedly violating sanitation rules during the coronavirus pandemic for calling for protests.

Russian journalists pressed the Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov in a conference call with reporters to comment on what one journalist called "probably the biggest repressions modern Russia has seen," citing mass detentions and mistreatment of journalists covering the protests.

"I don't agree with you. There are no repressions in Russia," Peskov said. "There are only measures taken by the police against the violators of law -- against participants of unauthorized rallies," Peskov added.

Peskov admitted that there are more detainees than can be processed, but that "harsh police steps are justified in accordance with the law."

Russia has repeatedly blamed the United States for fueling the protests.

 

[Wandering Monk]

Shown its teeth for all the world to see. Strip away the mask and maybe the world will do something about this tyrant Putin.

 

[Mock Turtle]

A bit like Rasputin, difficult to get rid of, but we know what happened to him eventually. But it might not take that much to see Putin gone if he makes more mistakes - and the people become more displeased with his regime.