Resident of Kanevskaya village of the Krasnodar Territory Grigory Rusin claims that during one-man picket on 9 of May of this year the police officers illegally applied physical force against him: suddenly pushed him in the back, striking him down, holding him by force on the ground, twisting his finger. Lawyers with the Committee Against Torture applied to the Investigative Committee today with regard to this fact.

On 12 May 2021, Grigoriy Rusin from the Kanevskaya village of the Krasnodar Territory applied to the Committee Against Torture for legal assistance. He told human rights defenders that on 9 May of this year he went to the centre of the Kanevskya village to hold a one-man picket. As soon as he raised a poster with lines from Dmitry Nazarov’s poem, some police officers and Cossacks came up to him.

“At first Cossacks came up to me and started to ask me why I was spoiling the celebration, what a shame of me to do such a thing, and etc. Then they switched to insults. One of them called me a prostitute. All this time the police officers were nearby and did not take any measures”, – Grigory recalls.

According to Rusin, the police officers requested that he went to the police department with them. To this questions on whether he was violating the law, the police officers told him he was not. Grigory told them that in this case he was going nowhere with them, since he was not obliged to do so.

“After some time of holding a picket I decided to make a photo. In order to do that I folded up my poster and handed my phone to an acquaintance of mine named Ivan who was making a video record of all that was happening, and asked him to make a photo of me. I returned back to where I was standing and unfolded the poster and at some moment I fell on the ground. How they stroke me down I failed to understand, – Grigory describes. – After that I felt a sharp pain in my right hand and realized that someone was twisting my finger. I thought that the police officers would put handcuffs on me, lift me by my hands and lead me. This did not happen. They pushed me, pressed me, possibly, sat on me. I felt a sharp pain in my right arm as if they were walking on me”.

After Grigory managed to get up, he realized he did not have his sheepskin hat which was in the hands of one of the police officers. They started to tease him, mocked him when he was running around to get his sheepskin hat, trying to pull it out of the hands of the police officers.

When it grew dark, the police officers and the Cossacks gave the poster back to Grigory and left.

On the same day, Rusin applied to the district hospital. According to the medical certificate that the doctor issued, he was diagnosed with a contusion of the right hand.

In addition, the police officers came to the hospital, with whom Grigory went to the police department where he applied to the investigator with a crime report with regard to the events that happened.

On 12 May, Grigory underwent a medical forensic examination, based on the results of which he was diagnosed with: “Bruises in the area of the neck, traumatic swelling of the soft tissues, extravasation in the area of the right hand with limited functionality of the right hand, contusion of the soft tissues and hemorrhages in the area of the rib chest on the left, bruises in the area of the lower limbs, which inflict mild health damage”.

Today, lawyers with the Committee Against Torture applied to the Investigative Committee on behalf of Grigory Rusin with a crime report.

“It is hard to explain what the police officers were motivated by when they were applying physical force against a person who was standing in a one-man picket and doing nothing illegal, – lawyer with the Committee Against Torture Anna Kotsareva commented. – I hope that the investigators will promptly investigate this incident and pass a lawful ruling. We, in our turn, started our own public investigation”.