How they look for people from Bolotnaya

The materials of the investigation into the Bolotnaya case contain descriptions of at least 86 more potential defendants. They are published on the website about the “Bolotnaya Case” . Most of the faces in the photographs are almost indistinguishable or even hidden by masks. PublicPost figured out how investigators are looking for and identifying from photographs and videos those who were on Bolotnaya Square on May 6, 2012.

The creator and administrator of the website about the “Bolotnaya Case”, where descriptions of the persons involved in the case are published, Pavel Elizarov says that he received photographs from a source close to the investigation: “These are mainly screenshots from video recordings attached to the case. Investigators looked at the video and the places where , in their opinion, there was participation in mass riots, they took screenshots and described the people in the video. I have compiled a list of these people, but I cannot say that any investigative actions are being taken on them. I know".

“At all events, operational video recording is carried out and everything that falls into the lenses of video cameras is then laid out into such pictures,” RosUznik coordinator Nikolai Korolev told PublicPost. “There are special people who monitor social networks - by political parties and activists. And then just They are checking identities: someone knows someone, someone has heard of someone. This is how Alexander Margolin, one of the last people arrested in the Bolotnaya case, was found - his photograph was found on social networks.”

“Some of the first videos are viewed by employees of the E Center, who know most of the activists by sight. The video is also cropped and run through a photo bank (there is such a facial recognition program,” one of the left-wing activists told PublicPost. “The video is also checked against photographs of the detainees on Bolotnaya Square on May 6, there were about 600 of them. The detainees were filmed at the police department, possibly photographed and fingerprinted, someone could have been testified by Maxim Luzyanin and Konstantin Lebedev, who confessed and cooperated with the investigation.”

“Each service has its own way of searching for people,” said a former investigator, who asked not to give his name. “The first thing they start with is agents, social networks. If there are no agents, and social networks do not help, then control calls are made from the place of the main cellular operators. This is how they identify the subscriber numbers of those who were in a certain place within a certain period with a radius of up to 500 m. And then the analytical work begins, the details of the calls are taken, the owner of the mobile phone is identified, wiretapping and surveillance can be used to understand. Form 1 for this person from the passport office, the photo on it is compared with a photograph or video from the action." The investigator does not rule out that agents could have been used during the rally on Bolotnaya Square - people who get to know several participants in the rally and exchange telephone numbers with them: “Agents bring telephone numbers to those for whom they work, and then it is established who the number is registered to , a printout is taken, and so on. Now telephone conversations are stored on the server for two months."