A volunteer from Navalny’s headquarters and an administrator of the “Evil Gatchina” group were detained in Gatchina.

In a shopping center in Gatchina, a volunteer of Alexei Navalny’s headquarters, Anton Grachev, and the administrator of the “Evil Gatchina” group, Yevgeny Novikov, were detained. Novikov was going to make a report in connection with the arrival of the Governor of the Leningrad Region, Alexander Drozdenko, at the shopping center for inspection, Anton Grachev reported to OVD-Info.

The reason for the detention was not explained to the activists; during the detention they were beaten. According to Grachev, two men in camouflage with a “Security” badge ran up to them and “began to twist” the activists. Grachev and Novikov asked to explain what was the matter, to which they were told: “Get out of here.”

“We wanted to ‘get out of here,’ but they didn’t let us—they tied us up, dragged us into an elevator, and beat us in the elevator,” Grachev said. After this, the activists were handed over to police officers who were waiting below.

Grachev clarified that Novikov was not feeling well after the beating, but they refused to call an ambulance for the activists.

Now Grachev and Novikov are being taken to the police department.

Anton Grachev was repeatedly detained, fined and arrested. On March 15, three days before the elections, the court arrested him for 5 days and fined him 20 thousand rubles - Grachev was the election observation coordinator from Navalny’s headquarters in Gatchina. Before that, he was called in for questioning. On March 11, Grachev and other headquarters volunteers were detained when they were returning from a picket with a “Voter Strike” poster and a Russian flag.

UPD 17:40 The activists were released from the department three hours later without any protocols.