The former head of Navalny’s headquarters in Kostroma said that he was detained as he was leaving his house, taken to the forest with a bag over his head and arrested for 10 days

The former head of the headquarters of politician Alexei Navalny in Kostroma, Alexander Zykov, said that he was detained at the exit of his house and taken to the forest, with a bag put on his head. He wrote about this on Facebook.

“I was kidnapped by unknown officers on the orders of Governor [Sergei] Sitnikov. As soon as I left the house, a UAZ drove up to me, four big guys in uniforms without chevrons ran out of it and knocked me to the ground with a blow, snapped the handcuffs and tore the phone out of my hands,” Zykov said.

After that, the oppositionist writes, unknown people put a bag over his head and took him to the forest near the village of Sholokhovo, about 30 kilometers from Kostroma.

“One of the big guys, as follows from his communication, gave my phone number to employees from the administration of the governor of the Kostroma region. It is still not known by whom I was kidnapped and generally out of fear. Right now I was taken to court, and the judge does not allow listeners into the courtroom, and also refuses to provide me with a defense. This is just sheer chaos, the natural Caucasus,” says the oppositionist.

The detainee said that he wrote statements about the abduction while he was at the police department, but they received no response. From the police department he was taken to court.

According to Zykov , he was eventually arrested for 10 days: “I filed a petition for admission of a lawyer, for admission of the press and spectators to the trial. The judge rejected absolutely all of my requests. I twice challenged the judge due to bias and violation of the right to defense. The judge rejected the challenges. This is not a trial, this is a spit in the face of justice.”

Corrected at 14:08. Initially, the news erroneously stated that Zykov was the current chief of staff. Title changed.