Police in Arbazh carried out two days of mass interrogations and fingerprinting of residents of the village of Roi, who were suspected of distributing two dozen pocket calendars containing propaganda against the ruling party. ... - Two police vehicles arrived around ten or eleven at night. There were six or seven of them, some in uniform, some in plain clothes. Apparently they had called in not only the officers on duty, but also staff who had already gone home to rest, eyewitnesses say. They arrived and went from yard to yard, apparently starting with the houses where the lights were still on. We have one brave old lady here who told the late-night visitors exactly where to go. But otherwise they visited almost everyone, asking about the calendars—whether people had seen them, who might have brought them, and so on. It was unsettling, of course, as if we were criminals... According to a local resident named Tatyana, the police took written statements about how, when, and under what circumstances the political calendars had been found, and demanded detailed descriptions of the “scene of the incident.” Despite the late hour, they made people open the shop where the “improper” campaign material had been discovered. At the same time, the officers never even stated any legal grounds for these investigative actions. Nor did they do so the next day: on Saturday, uniformed men again descended on Roi with more questions. - Officers were even sitting in the shop, taking every customer aside and questioning them—who they lived with, where they worked... eyewitnesses say. In the end, according to villagers, the main suspect in these “investigative” actions became an 18-year-old first-year female student who had arrived in Roi from Kirov the day before, together with her cousin, to visit her parents. The student was fingerprinted, and later her parents were ordered to provide her address in Kirov and her mobile phone number. Staff from the local administration and the library were fingerprinted as well. When some tried to refuse, the police allegedly replied: “Then you’ll go to Kirov for it.” People in Roi are still discussing why and on what grounds police officers “shook down” the village for two days. And they still do not understand what they had done wrong. They say the outcome of the “special operation” was the conclusion that the calendars had been distributed by “unknown persons.” http://www.nabludatel.ru/index.php?modul=articles&id=1726 For reference, the village of Roi is located here:
Its official population is 80 people. You’d definitely have an easier time finding a bear there than a representative of the authorities. Congratulations to the Kirov Region Interior Ministry department on a successfully carried out special operation. Though I really wish murders and robberies were investigated with the same scale and thoroughness.
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