Abduction with sleeping pills

RSD (Russian Socialist Action) activist Filipp Galtsov was detained at a rally against Putin’s inauguration on May 6, 2012 in Moscow. He ended up in a paddy wagon with anarchist Stepan Zimin. The court decided to arrest Galtsov for five days, but he left the courthouse before the end of the hearing. In June, Zimin was placed in a pre-trial detention center on charges of participating in mass riots and using violence against a government official. Galtsov contacted his lawyer and proposed his candidacy as a defense witness. In September, Zimin’s defense filed a motion to question a new witness. On October 25, 2012, employees of Center “E” came to Galtsov’s home and took him for questioning to the Investigative Committee. There, investigator Grachev tried to extract testimony from the activist against the leaders of the “Left Front” Sergei Udaltsov and Leonid Razvozzhaev (they later became defendants in the case of “organizing riots” on Bolotnaya). For refusing to answer questions, investigator Grachev hit Galtsov in the face.

After interrogation and a search of the apartment, Galtsov was released, and he lived with friends for some time until he learned that his name appeared in Razvozzhaev’s “confession”: it stated that Galtsov led an “organized column of anarchists” during a rally on Bolotnaya and led her to break through the police cordon. Realizing that he himself might soon find himself involved in the Bolotnaya case, Galtsov left for Ukraine. On January 23, 2013, his apartment was searched again, and then CPE officers began visiting his relatives every month, asking them about the activist’s whereabouts and threatening them with “consequences.” In March 2015, police came to the apartment of the activist’s sister, where he had never lived and was not registered. In September 2015, the home of Galtsov’s relatives was searched again. Police officers said they suspect the activist of throwing paint at the United Russia office on the night of October 26.

High Commission Several times they tried to detain Galtsov on the territory of Ukraine, apparently in order to deport him to Russia, but human rights activists intervened, and the activist was able to obtain refugee status from the UN for Refugees. He was given political asylum in Sweden. On August 14, an extremely strange story in the spirit of spy detective stories happened to him. OVD-Info publishes his story.

I have been living in Stockholm for 1.5 years. I work, study and volunteer at the human rights organization Ordfront . Together with other Russian political emigrants, we are campaigning for the release of political prisoners in Russia. We hold various public events where we talk about the “Bolotnaya Affair” and repressions against civil and social activists.

On August 10, I noticed that I was being followed. Two men followed me from home to the clinic, and then rode the metro. They were waiting at the place of work. When I tried to photograph them, they dodged quite skillfully. I decided to talk to them. They answered something incomprehensible in Polish and got off at the next station.

On the evening of August 14, I was riding the subway to my home in Stockholm. At approximately 16:45 I boarded the metro car at Mörby Centrum station. After one stop - at Bergshamra station - two men boarded the train and sat opposite me. From that moment on, I remember quite vaguely what happened. Several times I came to my senses for a short period. The first time was in a car with three men who, in broken English, discussed what to do with me and where to take me. They did not enter into dialogue with me, and their goals still remain unclear to me. I was conscious for no more than 20 seconds, I couldn’t speak, I constantly wanted to sleep, and the back of my head hurt badly. The next time I woke up for a few seconds in a room that looked like a warehouse.

On August 15, at about 19.00, I came to my senses in a hospital in the city of Södertälje (a suburb of Stockholm).

The doctor informed me that the police had found me unconscious at a gas station. An injection mark was found on my body.

The doctor said that they found a large dose of sleeping pills in my blood, which caused loss of consciousness and memory loss. There were no signs of beatings. Then the Swedish police came and questioned me about what had happened. All I could tell was that documents, keys to the apartment, a bank card and about 600 SEK in cash were missing.

The next day, the doctor discharged me with a diagnosis of an overdose of sleeping pills. That same day I decided to go to the police, where I wrote a statement about what happened. At the moment, I know that the investigation is being conducted by the Stockholm Criminal Police. Subsequently, the Security Police - Säpo - also became involved in the case. At the moment I don't know which version they are working on. My lawyer was informed that there is already one suspect in the case, he is wanted.

My memory has not yet fully recovered, but gradually I am beginning to remember some small passages. I remembered that that warehouse was located somewhere near the Stockholm-Malmo highway . I remembered that in the company of these people, one spoke Russian.

Before this incident, strange stories also happened to me. Last March, during a routine visit to the tax office, I was notified that I had moved to Riga. I tried to clarify the situation, because moving to Latvia was not part of my plans. It turned out that an unknown person, a few days before my appearance, forged my signature and dropped the application into the tax service’s mailbox. As a result, I wrote an application to return to Sweden. According to the rules, I had to wait about two weeks for a response to my request.

A day later, the police stopped me to check my documents. They, without explaining to me the reasons, took me to the local department. There I was notified that I had received a request for extradition from Russia. The request came to the Malmö police, where I lived for about a year. The police did not specify what specific case the request was for. They told me to appear at their first request to be taken to court. I found a lawyer who found out that the request was about the Bolotnaya case. Around the same time that the tax office received a statement about my alleged move, most of my refugee file disappeared from the archives of the migration service. Thanks to the prompt actions of the lawyer, the extradition case was closed. We have written several complaints to the migration service, police and tax authorities, the consideration of which is scheduled for October.