The second all-Russian protest “Freedom for Navalny.” Results January 31

On January 31, a second rally took place across Russia in support of politician Alexei Navalny, who is about to be sent to serve his sentence in the Yves Rocher case. By the time of publication, at least 5,754 people had been detained throughout the country; in many cities, the protests were violently dispersed by police and riot police. Security forces beat protesters during arrest and used electric shockers and gas. OVD-Info tells the main thing about the all-Russian protest action.

OVD-Info had a lot of work today. Our lawyers and lawyers helped detainees in police departments throughout Russia, we advised detainees in a bot and by phone. We published all the collected data on social networks and online because we believe that information protects. All this was possible only thanks to you. Support our work with a regular or one-time donation!

As was the case last weekend, the use of violence against peaceful protesters was disproportionately brutal. The rallies were accompanied by arrests in all regions. During arrest, protesters were beaten with batons and used with stun guns - reports of this came from Moscow, St. Petersburg and Vladivostok. It was also reported that in the center of St. Petersburg, security forces used gas against protesters after they tried to free a detainee.

A week ago, at a similar protest, at least 4,000 people were detained in 125 cities. By the time of publication of this text, the number of people detained at the rally on January 31 was at least 5,754 people in 86 cities of Russia. Just like a week ago, security forces deliberately detained journalists—at least 91 media workers in 31 regions of Russia. There was also strongpressure on journalists on the eve of the protest in different regions of Russia. Media workers were detained and tried to be given warnings about the inadmissibility of participating in the protest. All this was done to prevent them from doing their job.

On the eve of the action, the police detained the editor-in-chief of the Mediazona publication Sergei Smirnov. This happened at the moment when he went out for a walk with his little son. A protocol was drawn up against Smirnov for repeated violation of the rules of participation in the action due to a retweet. The police believed that by this action Smirnov called on “an unlimited number of participants to take part in the uncoordinated action on January 23.”

On the day of the all-Russian action, 7x7 journalist Ivan Zvyagin from Kursk was charged with organizing a protest action due to a link to OVD-Info instructions in the messenger. He was kept in the department for two days.

Before the protest in Moscow, the entire centerwas blocked - seven metro stations were closed, and public transport routes were changed.

## Information about detainees

Detained: 5,754 people in 87 cities of Russia, this is another record for the number of detainees over the nine years of work of our human rights project. We publish lists of detainees . Like last time, OVD-Info, together with Meduza, prepared a map with the number of detainees by city in each region.

Beaten by police officers: according to OVD-Info estimates, at least 63 protest participants were beaten by law enforcement officers during their arrest.

Minors: 205 people throughout Russia.

Detained journalists: at least 93 journalists in 31 cities of Russia; police deliberately interfered with the work of the press covering protests.

What the detainees are charged with: violation of the rules of participation in the rally (Part 5 of Article 20.2 of the Administrative Code); creating interference with city infrastructure (part 6.1 of article 20.2 of the Code of Administrative Offenses); repeated violation of the rules of participation in the promotion.

What they face: under various parts of administrative articles, detainees face fines from 10 to 300 thousand rubles and arrest from 15 to 30 days.

Detentions of protest participants

Kazan

Chelyabinsk

Ufa

Moscow

Saint Petersburg

Violence and threats to protesters from security forces

• In Vladivostok, police shot at a protest participant with a traumatic weapon, and he was wounded in the leg. “I did not use any resistance or violence. A man who did not introduce himself and was not in uniform shot at me. I shouted to him, asked who he was, an employee or not. I thought it was a Cossack in general and would kill me,” said the detainee;
• In Moscow, a detainee was hit with a stun gun , after which he lost consciousness;
• In St. Petersburg, a policeman pointed his service pistol at protesters;
• In Kostroma, a detainee was tortured : “I pinched my nose with my fingers so that I wouldn’t breathe and closed my mouth.” Another detainee has a torn jacket and bruises;
• In Ryazan, activist Alexei Borisov was beaten during his arrest, his friend reports . “They dragged him into a paddy wagon, threw him on the floor, and beat him. Broken 2 or 3 ribs, abrasion on the head. That's all he managed to say. The doctor has come";
• In Novosibirsk, during the arrest of Roman Nigorodov, he was hit hard on the head, and an ambulance took him away from police department No. 4;
• In Chita, police stopped passers-by and took photographs of their passports and faces;
• In Stavropol, protest participant Elena Gavrilova is threatened with a case of counterfeiting. She was searched and her computer was seized from her home. After this, Gavrilova was detained and she stopped communicating;
• In Perm, during an arrest, a police officer jumped on Andrei Verevkin’s chest;
• In Moscow, during his arrest, photographer Ivan Kleimenov was beaten and hit with a stun gun; he required hospitalization ;
• In Chelyabinsk, detainees who were taken to police department No. 4 were beaten during arrest ; they were not called for an ambulance;
• In Kazan, security forces put people in the snow. Their protective masks are torn off and photographs are taken with their phones;
• In the department in the Obruchevsky district of Moscow, the detainee and his parents are intimidated by the commission on juvenile affairs and the investigative committee;
• In the city of Tyrnyauz in Kabardino-Balkaria, two people were detained after a picket on Elbrus. They were threatened with drugs;
• In Simferopol, two detainees are forced to give fingerprints. The employees say that if you refuse, they will not let you leave the department. The detainees are also threatened with the army and criminal charges;
• In Moscow, on Olkhovskaya Street, riot police placed detainees facing the wall;
• In Chelyabinsk, during the dispersal of the rally, a 65-year-old woman’s arm was broken .

Detentions of human rights defenders and obstruction of their work

• In Moscow, they tried to detain OVD-Info lawyer Dmitry Zakhvatov - security forces broke into the bar association, which is located not far from the Matrosskaya Tishina pre-trial detention center. The lawyer was not detained, but the citizens who came to the bar were detained;
• Timur Rakhmatulin, a lawyer for the Committee against Torture (CAT), was detained in Orenburg. On January 28, CPT lawyers filed six applications with the Investigative Committee due to the violence of security forces at the last protest. Human rights activists represent the interests of victims at protests;
• In Vladivostok, at police department No. 1, a district police officer pushed Polina Sidelnikova, a lawyer from OVD-Info, out of the office when she was providing legal assistance to one of the detainees.
• Lawyer of the Memorial Human Rights Center Tatyana Chernikova was detained as she left her house. The human rights organization stated that what was happening to Navalny was politically motivated arbitrariness and reprisal, and recognized the politician himself as a political prisoner. Also, the Memorial Human Rights Center made a statement to law enforcement officers in connection with the protests;
• An employee of the human rights project “Team 29”, Dmitry Zair-Bek, was detained in Moscow. A lawyer is not allowed to see him; he is a witness in a criminal case for blocking roads during a protest on January 23. Earlier, Team 29 lawyers appealed to the Investigative Committee in the case of Margarita Yudina, who was kicked in the stomach by a riot police officer in St. Petersburg during a protest on January 23.

Criminal cases after the protest

• In St. Petersburg, a criminal case was opened under articles on the use of non-life-threatening violence against a representative of the authorities (Part 1 of Article 318 of the Criminal Code). According to investigators, the detained man “punched a riot policeman at least twice in the head area, causing him physical pain and bodily harm”;
• In St. Petersburg, a criminal case was opened for blocking roads (Part 1 of Article 267 of the Criminal Code) due to the protest action on January 23. On the morning of January 31, at least nine activists were searched as part of this criminal case;
• In Chelyabinsk, a criminal case was opened for blocking the road (Part 1 of Article 267 of the Criminal Code). As part of this case, those detained at today's rally are being interrogated;
• Another criminal case was opened in Chelyabinsk under the article on the involvement of minors in illegal activities (Article 151 of the Criminal Code). The case was initiated due to the protests; the coordinator of the local branch of the “Spring” movement, Alexandra Kashevarova, was questioned as a witness.
• A criminal case was opened in Moscow due to the arson of a National Guard vehicle. The case is being investigated under the article on intentional damage to property (Article 167 of the Criminal Code). Police are looking for two suspects.

Violence and violation of rights in paddy wagons

• In Vladivostok, in a paddy wagon, they used a stun gun on a detainee, twisted his arms, and during the search they forced him to stand like a “star” by the car and did not allow him to lower his arms, they beat him on the arm;
• In Tver, the detainees were driven around the city in a paddy wagon for about four hours, and only after that the detainees were brought to the police department. The detainees' passports were taken away and they are trying to force them to submit fingerprints;
• Those detained in Moscow were taken to Troitsk, the paddy wagon was overcrowded, some were traveling standing;
• At the Moscow Strogino police station, detainees have not been taken out of the paddy wagon for almost two hours ; the police refuse requests to go to the toilet.

Violations in police departments and denial of access to lawyers

• In many police departments across Russia, detainees had their phones taken away or forced to turn on airplane mode;
• Those detained in different cities of Russia were interrogated at police departments in criminal cases opened after protests on January 23 and January 31;
• OVD-Info received reports from different cities that detainees were forcibly forced to give fingerprints. This is an optional procedure, since a passport is sufficient to establish identity;
• In Moscow, lawyers from OVD-Info were not allowed into the following police departments: “Fili-Davydkovo”, Krasnoselsky, “Western Degunino”, “Zamoskvorechye”, “Marfino”, “Sokol”, “Begovoy”, “Savelovsky”, “Khovrino” , "Marina Grove". In many police departments, the “Fortress” plan was introduced - do not let anyone in or out;
• The human rights project "Apology for Protest" reported that their lawyers were not allowed into some police departments in Moscow , St. Petersburg and other cities;
• The human rights project “Human Rights Postcards” reported that lawyers were not allowed into police departments to see detainees in Tambov;
• An ambulance arrived at the Perovo district department, reports Apology of Protest. Investigative Committee officers are there - they are interrogating detainees in a criminal case for violation of sanitary and epidemiological rules (Article 236 of the Criminal Code);
• Lawyers from OVD-Info in Rostov-on-Don and Yekaterinburg were not allowed to see the detainees;
• At the Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia in Bryansk they have been holding detainees since 14:20: they don’t say anything, they don’t let you call, they don’t register them. People are not fed or given water ;
• In St. Petersburg, at police department No. 55 in the Kolpino district, detainees are prohibited from giving names to each other, probably in order to interfere with the work of human rights activists;
• Three people were reported beaten and hospitalized from police departments in St. Petersburg;
• In St. Petersburg, in OP No. 39 of the Kolpinsky district, a hearing-impaired single mother has been kept in the department for more than seven hours. She has two children under 14 years old and has no one to leave them with. Lawyers are not allowed to see detainees;
• In one of the departments in Kazan, the phones of the detainees were taken away . In another, police department No. 10 “Industrial,” police force detainees to give fingerprints. They threaten to leave him overnight;
• In another Kazan police department, detained female students were forced to strip down to their underwear;
• In Vologda, detainees are kept in the police department for more than three hours without explanation ;
• In Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, detainees at police station No. 2 were forcibly fingerprinted;
• On Russky Island, at police department No. 9, detainees were forced to put their phones in airplane mode - this is a function that turns off cellular communications;
• Navalny LIVE journalist Alexandra Shapalina was detained at home and taken to the Gagarinsky police station. The department found out that the woman had a high temperature of 38.6, but the ambulance that arrived refused to take her away from the police department. The detainee has been kept in the department for more than three hours, but no protocols have been drawn up against her;
• In Vladivostok, at least 50 detainees are held for more than 4 hours in police department No. 2. The detainees are not given food or water , and are also forced to take photographs and give fingerprints. When detained, they were forced to turn on airplane mode on their phones;
• In Tyumen, police department No. 6 prohibits people from making phone calls and forces them to give fingerprints;
• In Nizhny Novgorod, protesters have been held in police department No. 2 for more than three hours without explanation . One detainee with a group 3 disability asked for medical assistance, but she was refused. Food parcels are not allowed into the department;
• In Vladivostok and Yekaterinburg, lawyers were not allowed into the departments to see detainees;
• In Sochi, at the police department in the Adler district, the detainees were handcuffed and were not being removed;
• An ambulance was called to the detained Olga Elsakova to the building of the Ministry of Internal Affairs in Arkhangelsk;
• At Irkutsk police department No. 8, the detainees' phones were taken away . People have been held for more than three hours. Among the detainees there is one minor;
• In Vladivostok, people are kept in police departments after drawing up protocols under a non-arrest article on violation of the rules of participation in the action (Part 5 of Article 20.2 of the Administrative Code);
• In the department for the Chertanovo Central district they want to take away the keys to the apartments from the detainees. They also want to take away people's passports and phones.

What else is important to know about today?

• Roskomnadzor threatened to block and fine for publications on the Internet with “inflated figures about the number of participants in illegal rallies.” Similar measures will be applied for reports of “alleged violence and clashes.” Roskomnadzor considers such messages to be fakes;
• According to Open Media, police officers and the Russian National Guard arrived in the center of Moscow for three hours in the morning.