Black-and-blue white power

Russian federal agents have reportedly tortured the neo-Nazis they accuse of plotting to assassinate Margarita Simonyan and Ksenia Sobchak

Russia Today editor-in-chief Margarita Simonyan and Ksenia Sobchak, a socialite and erstwhile presidential candidate turned journalist, were both targets in a recent assassination plot, according to Russia’s Federal Security Service. On July 15, the FSB accused members of the Paragraph-88 neo-Nazi group of planning to murder Simonyan and Sobchak in exchange for 3 million rubles ($33,300) from Ukraine’s National Security Service. That same day, a Moscow court jailed seven suspects in the case, albeit on apparently unrelated charges of disorderly conduct. A few days later, the court jailed an eighth suspect. Three Paragraph-88 members are also accused of attacking Central Asian nationals in Moscow. For some reason, the court proceedings against these men have not once mentioned the reported plots against Simonyan or Sobchak. Journalists at Mediazona learned that the Russian authorities tortured the suspects before they came before a judge.

Two days before the FSB announced that it had thwarted a plot to kill Margarita Simonyan and Ksenia Sobchak, federal agents arrested a dozen people, releasing some after interrogating them as witnesses. Eight suspects are still in custody — all members of the Paragraph-88 neo-Nazi group. Their ages range from 15 to 22.

The men were reportedly apprehended in Moscow and outside Ryazan. “They beat it out of them, torturing them to testify about preparing terrorist attacks and working with guys at NS/WP,” wrote the Telegram channel Oderint, Dum Metuant, an online community with ties to the National-Socialism / White Power Crew, which is banned in Russia as a terrorist organization. (NS/WP members have been accused of plotting to kill state media propagandist Vladimir Solovyov.)

Two sources who saw the Paragraph-88 members before their arrest confirmed to Mediazona that the suspects were tortured in police custody. Another man who saw one of the accused at a police station told journalists that “they fucked him up so bad that he had no other choice.” The source said 18-year-old Mikhail Balashov’s hands were so bruised and swollen that they looked “bloated like boxing gloves.” He said Balashov’s screaming and the sound of heavy blows could be heard throughout the police station. Balashov’s mother also reportedly came to the station and yelled at her son: “Don’t sign anything! That’s not your lawyer!” She did not respond to journalists’ requests for comment.

For the defendants’ arraignment hearings, only reporters from the state news network Rossiya-1 were permitted inside the courtroom. In that footage, bruises are visible on Balashov’s face, his hands are swollen, and his wrists are injured, apparently by handcuffs. The other suspects don’t appear in the network’s report.

Journalists at Mediazona expect that the authorities will later bring more serious formal charges against the Paragraph-88 suspects, which is what happened before with the NS/WP members accused of plotting to kill Vladimir Solovyov. In that latter case, a year after the initial arrests, officials charged the defendants not only with attempted murder but also with the arson of several military enlistment offices and cars with pro-invasion bumper stickers. Prosecutors also charged them with participation in a terrorist organization.