In Kurgan, security forces detained the coordinator of Navalny's regional headquarters

In Kurgan, the police detained the coordinator of Navalny’s regional headquarters, Alexei Schwartz, who came to the Investigative Committee building for questioning as part of a criminal case under the article on evasion of military service (Article 328 of the Criminal Code). The headquarters reports this in its telegram channel.

According to the headquarters, the police confiscated Schwartz’s phone and took him “for a medical examination.” Where exactly Schwartz was taken is unknown; there has been no contact with him for more than five hours.

A criminal case was opened against Schwartz in early November, allegedly because he evaded military service. At the same time, according to the headquarters coordinator, he regularly visits the military registration and enlistment office on subpoenas and has never shied away from appearing.

In September 2020, Alexey Schwartz was attacked by the head of the military registration and enlistment office. In August, Schwartz was given three summonses to the military registration and enlistment office. This was preceded by interrogation by the Investigative Committee in the case of evasion of military service (Article 328 of the Criminal Code). At the same time, two weeks before, Schwartz answered the investigator’s questions in correspondence on VKontakte.

19:35 Schwartz reported that he was at large. During the medical examination, he said, the doctor confirmed that Navalny’s supporter had a disease incompatible with service. After this conclusion, the security forces left Schwartz alone in the hospital, adding that they would only give the phone back in the evening. Therefore, the headquarters coordinator noted, he did not get in touch immediately after the law enforcement officers left him.

• This is not the first case of such pressure on supporters of Alexei Navalny. Thus, in December 2020, Nikita Ilyin, an employee of Navalny’s Kurgan headquarters, had his military ID revoked . On May 13, 2020, Yevgeny Rudkovsky, an employee of Navalny’s Omsk regional headquarters, was summoned to the military prosecutor’s office due to doubts that he was unfit for service. And on December 23, 2019, FBK project manager Ruslan Shaveddinov was detained in his own apartment. On the same day, the Moscow City Court recognized the decision of the draft commission on his fitness for service as legal. A day later it became known that Shaveddinov was in a military unit on Novaya Zemlya. In December 2020, he returned home after a year of service.
• Employees and volunteers of the headquarters of opposition leader Alexei Navalny regularly face various forms of politically motivated pressure from the state. Thus, as part of a criminal case on money laundering at FBK, searches were carried out at headquarters employees throughout the country.