Pyotr Verzilov was arrested for 15 days

The publisher of Mediazona, a member of the Voina art group Pyotr Verzilov, who was detained on Sunday by employees of the Center for Combating Extremism (Center E) of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, was arrested by a court for petty hooliganism for 15 days, Interfax reported. This means that a well-known actionist will not be able to participate in any actions in the days before the Victory Parade and during the voting on amendments to the Constitution.

According to the BBC, Verzilov wanted to quote an iconic snapshot of China's 1989 Tiananmen protests and stand in front of a tank during a parade rehearsal.

Verzilov was not accused of a fight with a passerby (the defense considered this episode a provocation), but was arrested administratively for rude obscene language under Article 20.1 of the Code of Administrative Offenses.

On Sunday morning, Verzilov told Mediazona that a door was being broken in his apartment. Later, the Baza telegram channel published a video from surveillance cameras at Verzilov's entrance, which shows how people in police uniforms and balaclavas enter the entrance, one of them holding a sledgehammer. On Sunday afternoon, the police also came with a search to the ART4 gallery, which hosted exhibitions of the Voina group, which includes Verzilov.

Later, Verzilov got in touch and said that he had been interrogated for 13 hours in connection with the “Moscow case”, and the search warrant said that on the night of June 20, the security forces received information about his involvement in organizing mass riots on July 27, 2019. After leaving the police department, according to him, Verzilov was attacked from behind by a provocateur, he was again detained and left for the night in the department.

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