Libertarian Party member Pavel Chernukhin was detained in Irkutsk

In Irkutsk, police officers approached Pavel Chernukhin, a member of the Libertarian Party, on the street. They wanted to conduct a full examination of the young man, after he refused, he was taken to police department No. 2. This was told to OVD-Info by the press secretary of the Libertarian Party of Russia, Daria Petrushenko.

According to her, Chernukhin has been in the police department for more than an hour and has no opportunity to leave it.

According to Mediazona , which was able to contact the detainee, Chernukhin is now waiting for the witnesses to inspect the contents of the backpack in their presence. The activist himself assumes that his detention is connected with an attempt to seize copies of the Civic Position newspaper.

16:44 Darya Petrushenko told OVD-Info that Pavel Chernukhin was released from the police department. She also passed on information received from the detainee after his release.

According to Chernukhin, at first the police officers refused to give the reason for the detention and, laughingly, referred to Operation Anaconda.

At the police department, Chernukhin was taken to the office of a man in civilian clothes, who introduced himself as the head of the criminal investigation department, but refused to show his ID. According to the detainee, an unknown person took away his phone and, exerting psychological pressure, demanded to see the contents of the bag and pockets. Chernukhin agreed to do this only in the presence of attesting witnesses and a lawyer. The defender stood at the entrance to the department all this time, but they did not let him inside.

Only after another refusal did the man finally explain to Chernukhin the reason for his detention. According to the law enforcement officer, the activist looks like the man who stole the phone on June 2. Chernukhin was shown photographs of a man in a hood. Today, the activist also wore a hood, but on June 2 he was wearing different clothes. After explaining the reason for the detention, Chernukhin agreed to answer the officer's questions.

The man considers the given reason for the detention to be far-fetched and assumes that he was pressured to stop the activities of the activists.

17:50 Pavel Chernukhin noted that the police department did not give him copies of the documents drawn up and did not even allow him to photograph the papers on his phone.

• On May 31, in Irkutsk, unidentified persons attacked volunteers who were distributing the newspaper Civic Position. Together with activists, it was prepared by the former coordinator of Navalny's Irkutsk headquarters, Sergei Bespalov, who is going to run for municipal deputies.
• During the attacks, among other activists, Pavel Chernukhin was also injured, whose nose and lip were broken by unknown persons.
• The police identified the people who beat the activists and recommended that they come to the department to give explanations. The alleged attackers went to the police and gave explanations. Their arrest has not been reported.