Crackdown on protesters seen as intimidation
In just a few days, Sergei Abanichev was arrested, thrown in jail and charged with a crime that could keep him behind bars for up to eight years — all, he says, for throwing a paper cup into the air at an opposition protest in Moscow.
The 25- year- old sales manager got caught up in an investigation into what Russian authorities describe as rioting. Fourteen people were charged, mostly random protesters with no history of political activism. Analysts say the probe is an attempt to crack down on anti- Kremlin dissent with trivial accusations that range from throwing the cup to directing the crowd to step off the pavement.
Vyacheslav Abanichev was at his family’s summer cottage outside Moscow when his son called to say that a group of unknown men were banging on the door of the family’s apartment. Only hours later did the man who eventually knocked down the door identify the group as police officers and investigators.
The Abanichevs did not know what to think when they were told that their son was a witness in a rioting case. Later that day, he came out of a meeting with investigators and told his parents that he was identified in a video from the July 27 protest as someone who threw a beer can at police.
“He had an empty paper cup,” the elder Abanichev said, quoting his son’s account. “He told us that the police were trying to push out the crowd, and that he threw out the cup, and that was that.”
Later that day, his son was named a suspect in the rioting case and taken to jail. On Aug. 3, a court ruled that he must stay in custody for two months during the probe.
“When he remembered about that paper cup, I was baffled,” the father said. “I’m still baffled. I can’t understand what they’re keeping him, a random person, in jail for.”
Anti- government protests erupted in Moscow in mid- July after election officials barred a dozen opposition candidates from running for the Moscow city legislature. Authorities originally allowed the weekend protests to go unhindered but later outlawed the gatherings and started detaining and beating the demonstrators, which only helped to swell the crowds.
On July 27, thousands thronged the area around Moscow’s main drag where authorities deployed a formidable riot police force. Officers were seen detaining and often beating men and women alike. In frustration, some bystanders hurled plastic bottles at police, and some tried to force their way past police lines.
Protesters were not seen attacking the police. No property damage was reported either.
Yegor Zhukov, a 21- year- old student and blogger, is now in jail for at least two months after investigators said they have footage of him directing the crowd off the pavement and onto a busy street.
Valery Kostenok, a 20- year- old student who had been collecting signatures for one of the candidates, was arrested and charged with rioting after investigators claimed that he threw two empty plastic bottles at police. Kostenok admitted later in court to throwing the bottles in anger but insisted that the empty bottles could not hurt anyone.
Danil Beglets, a 26- year- old bed salesman, said in court that he ended up in the crowd by chance. When he saw a man being detained, he reached out to pick up headphones the man must have dropped. The prosecutors allege that Beglets, a father of two, pushed a riot police officer.
Details in some case files appear to be sketchy, but some of the suspects are in custody without even knowing what they are accused of.
Maxim Pashkov, lawyer for 25- year- old information technology engineer Aidar Gubaidulin, said he does not know how to defend his client.
“There’s nothing specific in the indictment,” he said. “It just said he ‘ took part in the riots, tried to break the police lines.’ ” Pashkov heard about a can thrown by Gubaidulin but said that allegation is nowhere to be found in the files he viewed.