Bars in Moscow suspected of financing Ukraine's Armed Forces
Moscow bars Underdog and La Virgen were visited on the evening of 17 March by police officers due to suspicions that they could be allegedly financing the Armed Forces of Ukraine. Visitors to one of the bars were forced to sing a song by the band Lyube [a Russian rock band infamous for Ruscist and war propaganda – ed.] and draw symbols of Russian aggression.
Source: Russian Latvia-based media outlet Meduza, Russian state-owned news outlets TASS, Russian Telegram channels
Details: It was reported that employees of the Russian law enforcement agencies came to Moscow bars Underdog and La Virgen at around 21:00 on 17 March with a sledgehammer and stun guns, after which the bars announced on social media that they stopped working for the night.
According to TASS, the police came to Moscow bars because of the suspicion that they might be involved in financing the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
Telegram channel SOTA wrote that one of the Underdog visitors was forced by riot police to write the letter "Z" and the words "For Russia" on the door of the bar.
According to the channel, the kind of music changed after the appearance of security forces in the bar. The bar played songs by Shaman [a Russian singer who is under Ukrainian sanctions for his propaganda activities – ed.] and Lyube.
Mediazona reported on Telegram, citing an employee from the bar Underdog, that the police forced visitors to sing along, threatening them with stun guns. It was noted that people with tattoos were asked to undress.
Moskva Telegram channel published a video of security forces mockingly calling on visitors to "belt out" the words of a Lyube song.
Later, OVD-Info wrote that there were detainees among the visitors and staff of the two bars who were taken to the Department of Internal Affairs of the Basmanny district of Moscow.
According to the Pervy Otdel human rights project, about 40 people were detained in total. Most of them were released. The detainees said that they were interrogated by Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) officers.
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