Some kind of infernal video blogging is going on in my journal—every post seems to be a video. But yesterday they sent me a clip I simply can’t help posting. July 13 of this year. The valiant police officers are letting fans of FC Spartak Moscow out of the stadium—fans who came to Lipetsk to support their team:
Just don’t start writing to me about how awful supporters are, or the fan movement in particular. I know all that perfectly well myself—they’re quite a crowd. Some of them are outright thugs and psychos. It’s well known that Surkov (Vladislav Surkov, a Kremlin political operative) and his crooks use some fan groups to stage violent provocations and attacks. Many people still remember the case when we ourselves were attacked that way at the debates. That changes nothing. The cops are simply, brazenly, lawlessly kicking people and beating them. They are using special equipment with no grounds whatsoever. The video shows it perfectly clearly (for example, at 0:58): an ordinary, calm guy is walking along. They shock him with a stun gun, and when he falls, they start kicking him. Why? If there were people violating public order—and I have no doubt there were—fine, detain them and hold them accountable. Let the worst offenders get 15 days in jail. As we can see, the police had every opportunity to make arrests painlessly and within the law. Two weeks in a Lipetsk lockup, sweeping the yard every day, would do a hooligan good. Mass beatings have exactly the opposite effect. Here is an eyewitness account that was sent to me: "Throughout the match, the Lipetsk police and OMON (special riot police) behaved brilliantly. But what happened after the game crossed every line. About 10 minutes before the end of the match, both our sections were closed off. People were let out in a chain: the first section in groups of five, the second one one person at a time into the chain. Some people were taken away at the signal of men in plain clothes. They would stop the whole line, and the person they pointed out would have his arms twisted behind his back under the stands, be beaten with batons, and burned with stun guns. They took away a reeeeally large number of people like that. Some people went into shock from the stun guns, and an ambulance was standing by for that, giving them sedative injections. Those who got out спокойно and stood in the square photographing all this had their hands hit with batons, their cameras fell, and the cameras were ground into the asphalt. Those who, after being shocked with stun guns, could no longer walk and collapsed were grabbed by the arms and legs, dragged out from under the stands, and thrown onto the asphalt on their backs. Two buses from Fratria (the Spartak supporters’ association) came to Lipetsk. Two people from one of those buses were taken away. We decided to wait for everyone and not abandon people in Lipetsk. Other buses were also standing near the stadium, waiting for their people. But after the last people left the section, OMON reached the buses and drove everyone onto them with batons. After that we called Spartak fan club president Yegor Petrov, RFPL security chief Meitin, and the match delegate. They contacted the police chiefs, and the police gave their word that everyone would be released immediately. In the end, one of our guys was only released today at 3:30 in the morning. Without his sneakers (!!!). And now he’s making his way back to Moscow on local trains." *Here is the statement by the official fan club: After the Russian Cup football match between Lipetsk’s Metallurg and Spartak, officers of the Lipetsk special police unit, without troubling themselves to look for those actually responsible and using various special means, subjected the people remaining in the stands to a total beating. And here is the official statement from the Lipetsk police: On July 13 of this year, from 19:00 to 20:50, the Metallurg Stadium in the city of Lipetsk hosted the Russian Cup Round of 32 football match between FC Metallurg (Lipetsk) and FC Spartak (Moscow). According to Yuri Safronov, head of the Public Order Department of the Lipetsk Region Internal Affairs Directorate, about 15,000 spectators attended the football match, including more than 2,000 FC Spartak supporters. To maintain public order, 800 police officers and 70 servicemen from military unit 5961 of the Internal Troops of the Russian Interior Ministry were deployed. A reserve force of 150 personnel was created in case the operational situation deteriorated. For administrative offenses committed, 34 FC Spartak supporters were held administratively liable under Article 20.1 of the Russian Code of Administrative Offenses. No serious disturbances of public order occurred during or after the match. Press Service *Internal Affairs Directorate for the Lipetsk Region *Maybe there were no “serious disturbances of public order.” But it is completely obvious that a number of officers from the Lipetsk Region Internal Affairs Directorate committed serious crimes. And the directorate’s leadership is covering those crimes up.
Vladimir Nikolayevich Vinevsky, head of the Internal Affairs Directorate (one of the “St. Petersburg police” crowd, by the way), clearly deserves to be suspended from his post, in my opinion.
As for Yuri Yuryevich Kuznetsov, head of the Public Security Police, he clearly deserves to end up in court. We are now going to submit an official complaint to the prosecutor’s office, attaching the video and screenshots. We will keep you informed about the progress of the case. If anyone can help by providing the names, addresses, positions, etc. of the cops seen in the video, that would be excellent. Naturally, any additional photo or video evidence would also be very valuable.