Several people with anti-war badges detained in queue of those willing to say goodbye to Gorbachev
VALENTYNA ROMANENKO — SUNDAY, 4 SEPTEMBER, 2022, 12:47
In Moscow, several people were detained in a queue of people who came to say goodbye to the late Mikhail Gorbachev, the President of the Soviet Union.
Source: human rights publication OVD-Info, citing eyewitnesses of the incident.
Details: In particular, one woman was detained as she was heard reprimanding the security forces.
Having heard the offensive phrase referring to them, the security forces approached the queue and began to search for the person who uttered it. Then a certain warrant officer asked the sister of the OVD-Info’s interlocutor for her identity documents; the woman provided a pension certificate and handed it over to the officer.
At that moment, the warrant officer saw an elderly woman nearby wearing a No To War badge, and ordered his subordinate to detain her as well. Then, as the interlocutor of OVD-Info reports, the security officer said: "What, you were brave enough to shout here, and now you are afraid to say a word to us? We will take the old lady, and you are to confess who shouted it."
A young man stood up for the woman and asked the police not to detain the elderly man. He was also apprehended.
A girl wearing a No To War symbol and symbols of the Yabloko [a Russian social democratic, left centrist party] was apprehended, too.
According to OVD-Info, the detainees were later released. The man who stood up for the elderly woman was released immediately. The woman who criticised the members of Rosgvardia [the National Guard of Russia] was released without any charges being drawn up by the police. Charges of discrediting the army were drawn up against two women with anti-war badges who were detained (Part 1 of Article 20.3.3 of the Administrative Code).
Background: The first and only president of the USSR, Mikhail Gorbachev, died on 30 August at the age of 91.
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