‘They put a grenade in my hands and said they were about to pull the pin’: Krasnodar anti-war protester reports torture by FSB operatives

In his January 9 court hearing, the anti-war protester Igor Paskar, charged with terrorism for setting fire to the FSB building in Krasnodar, told the court that he was tortured by FSB operatives after throwing a Molotov cocktail at their headquarters in June 2022.

Paskar is facing up to 15 years in prison. According to his lawyer, he admits the arson, but denies the allegations of terrorism.

During the trial, Paskar told the court that his position is

strictly peaceful, and was meant to show the opponents of this monstrous war that they are not alone, and to show our Ukrainian neighbors that we are not all zombies brainwashed by the propaganda.

Paskar made no attempt to flee from the scene, and waited to be arrested with blue and yellow paint covering his face.

Instead, he was seized by FSB operatives who took him into the building’s inner courtyard, and later to one of the offices. They handcuffed him and put a bag over his head. “After that,” Paskar says,

they started kicking me, put a grenade (or a model) in my hands, and said they were about to pull the pin. They put a gun to my head and threatened to shoot me. Then they put rings on both of my middle fingers and began sending electric shocks.

Mediazona reports that Paskar told his lawyer about the torture during the pretrial investigation, but wasn’t ready to make it public. In a message to the journalists, he explained his decision:

I don’t want to report the torture because I know no one will get punished for it. Let it stay on the conscience of those who tortured me. It’ll all come back to them.