‘Kidnapped’ dissident taken by army
A Russian anti-corruption campaigner who disappeared from his flat in Moscow after secret service officers broke down his door has turned up at a missile base on a remote island in the Arctic Ocean after he was forcibly conscripted.
The authorities said that Ruslan Shaveddinov, 23, had been dispatched there to carry out his military service after allegedly dodging the draft.
Shaveddinov is an associate of the Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny and works in his AntiCorruption Foundation (FBK). Navalny, 43, said that he suspected that his employee had been ‘‘kidnapped’’ and handed a ‘‘quasi-prison sentence’’ on the direct orders of President Vladimir Putin to ‘‘isolate’’ him from society.
‘‘Shaveddinov has an illness, documented by medical examinations, which does not allow him to be drafted for military service,’’ Navalny wrote in a blog post. ‘‘He has been illegally denied his liberty. He is a political prisoner in the most real sense.’’ Shaveddinov will serve as a private at the No. 23662 military base, which is a missile defence unit in Rogachevo on the southern island of the Novaya Zemlya archipelago.
The young activist went missing
Kremlin critic
on Monday evening after security officers broke down his door in Moscow, searched his flat, confiscated a television and took him away.
His mobile was blocked and his whereabouts were unknown until he was able to speak with Navalny’s press secretary on a borrowed telephone from Novaya Zemlya. Maxim Loktev, deputy military commissioner for Moscow, said that Shaveddinov had been drafted lawfully after failing an appeal against conscription. But a lawyer for the activist said that a second appeal had not been completed.
Sergei Krivenko, a civil rights activist, said that it was highly unusual for a new recruit to be sent directly to a military base rather than a training centre.
Russian authorities have used fines, imprisonment and suspended sentences to intimidate Navalny and his supporters, who accuse Putin of running a kleptocracy. Officials began to use a new tactic this summer when they searched for young men allegedly avoiding conscription among people detained at opposition protests in Moscow.
Men from 18 to 27, excluding those who are sick, are obliged to serve for a year in the armed forces. The draft can also be delayed by students, single fathers and carers. Many men avoid the service either for legitimate reasons or by paying for fake medical reports.
FBK was labelled a ‘‘foreign agent’’ in October for receiving funds from abroad, an allegation it disputes. Navalny pointed to the irony of sending Shaveddinov to a restricted military zone. ‘‘This is really very funny,’’ he said. ‘‘First they designated FBK a ’foreign agent’ and then they kidnapped the FBK employee Ruslan Shaveddinov and sent him to the secret missile base ...’’
‘‘Shaveddinov has an illness, documented by medical examinations, which does not allow him to be drafted for military service. He has been illegally denied his liberty. He is a political prisoner in the most real sense.’’ Alexei Navalny