August 13, 2019

Russian protesters offer reward for information on violent policeman

topic:	Humans
located:	Russia
editor:	Igor Serebryany

Russian opposition activists offered a reward of 100,000 rubles ($1,500) for information, which would help to identify a policeman who has brutally beaten a young woman after a protest that demanded free elections in Moscow last Saturday (4 August).

Daria Sosnovskaya was detained among 256 other protesters after the rally with about 50,000 participants. That was the third mass meeting in three weeks following the decision of Moscow authorities to bar independent candidates from running for the city legislative assembly.

While escorting 26-year-old Daria to a police bus, one of the policemen kicked her twice in the stomach, causing cranial trauma. It was impossible to identify the policeman immediately as he was wearing an intransparent helmet and bore no ID on his uniform.

Volunteers launched a campaign on Change.org demanding riot police to wear clearly visible ID plates. In a week, the petition collected over 100 thousand signatures.

This is a crime to assault and beat unarmed people regardless of their gender, a member of the Presidential Human Rights Council Nikolai Svanidze says. "Police abuse of Daria Sosnovskaya has been a particular case, but it triggered public outcry because it is generally disgusting when a man beats a woman. And this is twice as disgusting when that man wears police uniform," he stresses.

He says he has been holding control over the developments, and will inform President Vladimir Putin about them during the next meeting of the Council. "This is not about the personality of the particular police thug. We should compel that the Interior Ministry knows they wouldn't get away with their men beating unarmed citizens", Svanidze insists.

He adds that Russian society should not tolerate when armed police with their faces covered acts against peaceful protesters as if they are dangerous criminals. "We want to understand who gives the police those orders and to make their names public", Svanidze says.

It looks like the law-enforcers themselves feel embarrassed over the incident with Daria Sosnovskaya, as they attempted to lay the blame on each other.

Spokesman of the Russian Guards, Ilia Krenzhel, insists his colleagues have nothing to do with Sosnovskaya's brutal arrest. "We see it from the colour of the uniform they were not our officers. They could be officers from the Interior Ministry", he says.

Meanwhile, head of the Moscow police union, Pavel Korneev, denies his colleagues were involved in the Saturday incident. "At the rally, there were officers from both the Interior Ministry and Russian Guards. We don't know it for sure who those particular policemen were who used excessive force against that woman", he says.

File photo: AP Photo