Putin critics cry foul over World Cup detention

Kremlin uses heightened security measures to quell dissent as young protesters are detained by city court

A MOSCOW court has ordered that a 19-year-old Putin critic be held in pretrial detention until September, as the Kremlin uses sweeping security measures to drown out dissent during the World Cup. Judge Anatoly Kostyukov turned down veterinary student Maria Dubovik’s plea for home arrest.

She and five others who disparaged Vladimir Putin’s government in private chats were jailed in March and face 10 years for “organising an extremist group”. They include Anna Pavlikova and Vyacheslav Kryukov, who were 17 and 19 at the time of their arrest. Four more people are under home arrest.

A 2017 presidential decree banned all rallies during the World Cup not approved by local authorities, and the government has begun implementing heavy security for the event. But critics argue state agencies are clamping down on all forms of dissent ahead of the start of the competition next week.

According to their lawyers, Ms Dubovik and the others were entrapped by undercover agents.

“The increased security measures [around the World Cup] have led to innocent people getting in trouble, and dishonest law enforcement officials are using this to their advantage,” lawyer Maxim Pashkov said. “The atmosphere is such that they arrest first and figure out what actually happened later.”

Normally, pre-trial detention would be extended by two months rather than three, he said.

Nine anti-fascists have been arrested for allegedly plotting to set off bombs during the World Cup, accusations Human Rights Watch said were based on confessions extracted under torture.

On Monday, a Moscow court sentenced Roman Sushchenko, a Ukrainian journalist who was held during a 2016 trip to Russia, to 12 years for spying. Police have also reportedly been conducting raids against members of the Jehovah’s Witnesses religious organisation, which was banned in 2017. In the case of Ms Dubovik, she and several friends had begun discussing politics on the messenger app Telegram, which Russia has tried to ban, following a failed “revolution” of mostly young protesters called by self-exiled nationalist Vyacheslav Maltsev in November. They later began meeting in a Mcdonald’s restaurant and going to opposition protests in Moscow.

A newcomer to the group, Alexander Konstantinov, rented an office for the would-be activists and wrote a political manifesto calling for Mr Putin to be tried by a “people’s tribunal”, according to his testimony. Mr Konstantinov was in fact gathering evidence against the young people.

Opposition activist Ildar Dadin, who was released from prison last year after Amnesty International declared him a prisoner of conscience, was one of several dozen supporters not allowed into the courtroom on Tuesday.

He asked how European football teams could participate in a World Cup “in a country that kills and imprisons innocent people”.

“It’s football on people’s blood,” he said.