Denunciation and cold paddy wagon. The story of the artist Katrin Nenasheva, detained on March 8

Timur Bulatov is probably cooperating with the police. He writes denunciations , after which the police often disrupt feminist and LGBT events, and also detain participants in single pickets. Nenasheva would like to contact people who suffered from Bulatov’s actions in order to develop tactics for action in such cases. The art activist also wants to contact human rights activists who could help with this situation.

I came to St. Petersburg to hold my event, “Headquarters of Urban Self-Expression,” - this is a platform for those who want to engage in the art of action and activism. It was held on March 6 and 7. On March 8, I left my friend’s house and, unfortunately, had no intention of going to any events that were supposed to take place that day. I thought about going to support the girls at the picket, but it was already four o’clock in the afternoon, all the events were coming to an end. I have nothing to do with what was organized in St. Petersburg [on March 8] by feminist groups, although I support it in every possible way.

I was walking to the store, then a man runs up to me: “Are you Katrin Nenasheva?” I think it was the eschnik who tracked me down. I turn around and see police officers coming from the left. They said that I needed to go through for an explanation, since I was allegedly preparing “radical actions.”

They immediately put me in a paddy wagon. It was a stupid, incomprehensible “ glass ”; I’ve never ridden in one like this before. It was a Gazelle with a place for detainees in the back. It seems to me that these are used to transport [those under investigation] for criminal cases or drunk people. You find yourself in complete darkness, driving in a black square without windows, without doors - without anything at all.

It’s dark all around, and you can’t even talk to the police because there’s a very thick partition between you. I rode in this trunk for about an hour; there was no heating there. It was very cold and it was completely unclear where they were taking me. The car drove sometimes fast, sometimes slowly. At that time, my phone had not yet been taken away, and I started looking using the geotag. We drove along the Neva all the time, towards the region.

I remembered my experience [of detention] in the DPR : I believe that this is an absolutely tortured element when they put you in a black “glass”. I was able to pull myself together, but this would be very difficult for people, for example, with mental disorders or with a fear of the dark. If you find yourself in such a situation and you have a phone, you definitely need to call someone, be in touch, talk to someone. Breathing practices also help a lot. I also touched the walls to understand where I was. She moved her arms and legs to keep warm.

Then I was transferred to a regular car. They said: “Oh, you will write that we are torturing you. So be it, sit in the car.” There was no heating in the car either, it was cold. They told me that they were taking me to Gatchina and took away my phone. We drove another hour and a half to Gatchina, that is, the whole journey took 2.5 hours.

In Gatchina, the local police did not understand why they had brought me. I heard [their conversation] talking about eshnikov. As I learned from social networks, Timur Bulatov filed a [statement] against me - in January he already complained about [my event] at the Headquarters of Urban Self-Expression. As a result, the police in Gatchina told me that I was preparing some kind of event, and therefore I needed to write an explanatory note.

I was fingerprinted and photographed. I understood that this was illegal, but they told me that I was still obliged to undergo these procedures, since I was suspected of committing an administrative offense. They couldn’t tell me what exactly I was suspected of. We waited a long time for the operative [from St. Petersburg].

Timur Bulatov wrote a statement to the police and also posted on himself that on March 8 I would be holding a radical event simultaneously in the center of St. Petersburg and in Gatchina. That’s exactly why they took me to Gatchina to give explanations. As in January, when Bulatov called the police on me, the police’s task was simply to get an explanation from me.

On March 8, I also gave an explanation that I didn’t plan anything, I went out to the store. They let me go. Since Bulatov directly cooperates with law enforcement agencies, probably the idea with Gatchina was to take me away. In the end, all this took 6-7 hours. In the center of St. Petersburg they would have let me out immediately, and that was all.