The Kremlin advocated a thorough verification and investigation of an attack on the journalist Frenkel

The Kremlin advocated a thorough verification and mandatory investigation of the attack on the correspondent of the Mediazone correspondent David Frenkel in the N2191 polling station in St. Petersburg, as a result of which the policeman broke the shoulder bone to the journalist.

"Of course, this incident must be verified, must be investigated, we are talking about causing bodily harm to a Russian citizen and a journalist, so this should be all thoroughly verified and investigated," said Peskov quoted by TASS.

He noted that he does not know any additional instructions of the President of Russia against the Investigative Committee or bodies of the Ministry of Internal Affairs on this score, "all the more so since there is the current media law, which, in fact, regulates this mode of operation of the media."

Peskov added that “individual incidents” cause the Kremlin’s concern, but, “unfortunately, this happens throughout the world,” “absolutely in all countries”. “Naturally, we are critical of this. We believe that journalists should be completely without obstacles, subject to the current law, to carry out their activities,” the presidential spokesman said. In general, in his opinion, everything happens "within the framework of the existing legal field."

Peskov also doubted that a “separate incident” with Frenkel could affect people's opinion about voting. To the question of journalists, whether the Kremlin pay attention to the fact that such situations are not the first time in St. Petersburg, Peskov replied that "they do not draw such conclusions."

On the evening of July 1, the Commissioner for Human Rights in Russia, Tatyana Moskalkova, asked law enforcement agencies to verify the legitimacy of tough measures taken against Frenkel. According to her, “everyone should act within the framework of the law: people who are presented with the requirements to comply with sanitary rules, and law enforcement agencies and members of the election commission,” Interfax reports.

The permanent commission of the HRC on the freedom of information and the rights of journalists asked the Prosecutor General and the Investigative Committee to take on special control the case of beating a journalist, "in order to put an end to this shameful practice." The commission believes that the policeman who broke the hand of Frenkel must be punished "with all the maximum severity" for violating a number of articles of the Criminal Code.

The commission’s statement notes that the video that captured the use of force towards Frenkel shows that he did not attack a police officer and did not pose a threat to public order. The actions of the policeman fall under Article 114 or 115 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation on causing damage to health, as well as under Article 144 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation on the prevention of professional activities of a journalist.

“Unfortunately, Russia's attacks are almost never investigated in Russia. Journalists are also regularly detained at public events, often with unreasonable use of force,” the commission stated.

Many media supported David Frenkel, demanding an investigation: “Rain”, “Medusa”, “MBH Media”, “New Gazeta”, The Bell, Sports.ru, Taiga.info, ATS-Info and others. The Commissioner of the Council of Europe on Human Rights Dunya Miyatovich and the OSCE representative on media freedom, Arlem Desir, called the police violence unacceptable.

Producer Alexander Rodnyansky condemned both the attack itself and anti -Semitic comments on social networks regarding Jewish origin of Frenkel. He noted that such a reaction "is already very terribly rhyming" with the recently passed "powerful" Victory Parade and the opening of the Rzhevsky monument to the Soviet soldier. “We recall the feat of Soviet soldiers and we, it turns out, the grandchildren and great -grandchildren of the people who freed Auschwitz, behave like those who invented and launched,” Rodnyansky wrote on Instagram .

On July 1, David Frenkel arrived at the polling station due to a message about an attempt to remove a member of the election commission with a decisive vote. The policeman Denis Dmitriev tried to expel the journalist and when he refused to leave, threw him to the floor, broke his hand behind his back and hit it, breaking the shoulder bone.

Olga Karacheva, lawyer of the Apology of Protest, demanded that the UK initiate a criminal case under Articles 144 of the Criminal Code (obstruction of the legal professional activity of a journalist) and 286 of the Criminal Code (abuse of authority). The St. Petersburg City Electoral Commission said from the words of the Chairman of the PEC that Frenkel "created a conflict situation on the site, prevented the voting participants in the exercise of their rights" and, as a result, "was injured".

The Chairman of the PEC said that the journalist "no one pushed", and he "fell himself and began to scream." The official from the city administration, who preferred not to give his name, said that Frenkel allegedly came to the site with a "broken collarbone, pumped up by painkillers. The Governor of St. Petersburg Alexander Beglov, commenting on the attack, explained that "many are tired of their own character, each has their own emotional mood. There is excessive zeal, obsession, excessive enthusiasm. We are all people, we are all living - it happens."

Komsomolskaya Pravda and the Tsargrad television channel published a correspondence in Telegram Chat, a participant in which Frenkel was supposedly. It follows from it that everything that happened in the polling station N2191 was a pre -prepared provocation. The journalist himself in an interview with Radio Liberty called this correspondence "very funny." He noted that he could not prepare any provocation at 10 in the morning, since he was in close communication with the editors in connection with the preparation of large material on coronavirus statistics.

“Until an hour or half of the second, I sat tightly and prepared the material for the publication, so there was no question of any question. Well, it’s just ridiculous: who knows me well, knows that it is difficult to imagine to get up at 10 in the morning to prepare some kind of provocation,” I go to bed late and get up very late, ”the journalist said.

Frenkel underwent a four -hour operation, a pin was inserted into the middle shoulder bone. The full restoration of the bone will take about 8 weeks, it will take more time to restore the mobility of the hand.