A lot of people are asking, so I’m answering everyone at once.
Most often, the question is: how did it happen that they spent so long trying to catch you, detained you, and then just let you go?
It’s very simple. This is the crafty new tactic of old man Sardilenovich. They recently tested it on Volkov.
I was detained and charged under Article 20.2.8. That carries up to 30 days of arrest.
But then they released me “pending trial.” Why? Because if they jail me on January 28, I’ll be out on February 28. And Putin wants me isolated right before the election, and preferably during it.
So I assume they’ll jail me on a schedule designed to make sure I spend March 18 in a cell.
Remember, they recently did exactly this to our campaign chief, Leonid Volkov. They detained him, released him, and then detained him again and jailed him for 30 days so that he would miss all the most important procedures (nomination and filing documents with the CEC, Russia’s Central Election Commission).
In other words, what matters here is disrupting the organizational work behind the strike and—obviously, this is what matters most to Putin—the work of organizing election monitoring.
What’s interesting is that I still haven’t been given the administrative offense report. My lawyer and I have been demanding it for days—they won’t hand it over.
Take note of this new practice: phones are being confiscated from people held on administrative charges. It’s completely illegal, but they obviously want to dig through them. They took both my phone and my SIM card. I ask: on what grounds? This is an administrative case. Is my phone supposed to be evidence? An instrument of the crime?
They give no coherent answer. They confiscated the phone and sealed it up. They say: we won’t do anything with it, no tampering. Look: it’s sealed, and only the judge will open the package.
Naturally, the next morning I got a notification through Find My iPhone that the phone had been turned on. Curious Putin wants to see what’s in there.
It’s very inconvenient. My wife says: transfer some money. But now you can’t make a single payment without the bank’s confirmation text message.
So don’t worry—they’ll arrest me. The main thing is that we keep working despite it. Take part in the voters’ strike. Everyone’s contribution matters. Spend five to ten minutes a day urging your friends and acquaintances to boycott Putin’s re-election.