In Magadan, an activist of the movement “For the Return of Direct Mayoral Elections” had her phone confiscated

In Magadan, law enforcement officers seized the phone from Elena Bozhenova, an activist of the movement “For the Return of Direct Mayoral Elections”. She herself reported this to OVD-Info.

According to the activist, four people came to her - two of them were in civilian clothes, the other two had masks on their faces. They showed Bozhenova the search report and invited two neighbors as witnesses. After that, the activist gave them her phone.

Law enforcement officers did not explain to the woman why the communication device was taken from her.

• On March 21, police seized phones from two local residents - Vasily Konyakhin and Natalya, who chose not to give her last name. They are members of the WhatsApp messenger group dedicated to the activities of the movement “For the return of direct mayoral elections”, but are not its activists.
• Law enforcement officers told them that investigative actions were taking place as part of a criminal case under Article 319 of the Criminal Code (insulting a government official). And Konyakhin and Natalya are included in it as witnesses.
• As local activist Dmitry Zhurov noted, on that day no one came to the activists of the movement “For the Return of Direct Mayoral Elections,” who were organizing rallies and collecting signatures.
• The day after the seizure, Natalya went to the Investigative Committee. There she was asked about a message in the group in which someone used obscene language against the mayor of Magadan. The woman suggests that it was a repost of a message that someone commented on.
• The movement “For the return of direct elections of the mayor” advocates the resignation of the mayor of Magadan, Yuri Grishan.
• On March 19, the court arrested Ragnar Rein, the coordinator of Navalny’s headquarters in Magadan and a participant in this movement, for 10 days.