The “Agora” Human Rights Center (an association of the same name was recognised as a foreign agent and liquidated by a court decision in 2016) appointed a reward of 100,000 rubles for information about a member of law enforcement who hit a detained opposition activist.
“Attention, a criminal is being searched for! There is a reward for the ID data of the soldier of the 2nd operational regiment of the Main Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs on the city of Moscow who hit Darya Sosnovskaya,” wrote the head of the center Pavel Chikov on Twitter.
On August 11th, Sosnovskaya personally appealed to the Investigative Committee of Russia for the Tversky District of Moscow with a lawsuit against the police officer who beat her. According to the girl, the policeman beat her with his fist during her detention. The detention, as the activist said, was unmotivated, Sosnovskaya did not resist the police. As proof of the guilt of the officer of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the girl provided a certificate from a doctor, who recorded the bruising of soft tissues of the head and chest. After Sosnovskaya filed a complaint the Investigative Committee of Russia initiated a health check.
According to the lawyer of Sosnovskaya Tatiyana Molokanova, on August 10th Sosnovskaya “went about her affairs” after the sanctioned opposition rally. In the area of Ilinka Street, she saw police severely detaining a young man. The girl demanded to let him go. Without presenting ID, the police started to twist the girl’s hands.
“On the way to the police prisoner van, one of the employees dropped a baton on the asphalt. Apparently, it pissed him off. He hit Darya with a fist in the chest, then, already at the van, she was once again hit with a fist on the head,” reported Molokanova.
What’s confusing about this story? First of all, what the head of “Agora” Chikov said even before the decision of the court – that the police officer is a “criminal” – and informed his place of service. The injured activist is confused in her testimony. According to her lawyer, she first reported to the Investigative Committee of Russia that she had been beaten up by a law enforcement officer. But the Ukrainian (!) “Kanal UA” on YouTube gives another version – again from the words of Sosnovskaya.
“The Moscow police are establishing the name of the employee who hit the girl with a fist in the stomach during her detention after the rally on August 10th. It is interesting to note that the inspection staff of the Ministry of Internal Affairs didn’t start to work immediately, but only after they received a telephone message from the polyclinic. Darya Sosnovskaya (the beaten girl) turned to doctors, and they, in turn, by law reported it to the Ministry of Internal Affairs. Only after that did the superiors of the Department of Internal Affairs in the Central Administrative District decide after all to look into what happened,” reports “Kanal UA”.
Doctors indeed reported to the police the injuries of beaten patients, as well as about cuts, scrapes, and bullet wounds. But only if the patient wants to. In certain cases — if, for example, the victim before the arrival of the ambulance fainted — doctors, of course, report about it on their own initiative. As soon as the data goes to the police, police officers immediately contact the victim. Neither Sosnovskaya nor her defenders uttered a single word about the girl communicating her injuries with employees of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. There is no data confirming that the Department of Internal Affairs in Central Federal District of Moscow initiated any checks in connection with this case.
The video showing Sosnovskaya’s beating promptly gathers likes on YouTube, on liberal resources, on the blogs of oppositional activists and liberal human rights activists. An attentive viewing of the video reveals details of a suspicious character.
Firstly, according to the lawyer of Sosnovskaya, her client, having seen the detention of a young man, politely asked police officers to “release him”. The video shows the girl aggressively shouting: “You release the disabled person!” If Sosnovskaya saw the young man for the first time, how did she know that he is a disabled person? If an activist on crutches or in a wheelchair had been detained on Ilyinka Street, the whole Internet (especially its American and Ukrainian segments) would be screaming about it. However there is silence … Hence the question: did the boy, i.e., a disabled person, even exist?
According to Sosnovskaya, the police officer started to beat her because he was angry at having dropped his baton during detention. Now — attention — slow motion! Police officers (very correctly) take Sosnovskaya to the police van, the girl breaks free and kicks. The ill-fated baton … lies on the asphalt about 3 meters from Sosnovskaya’s place of detention.
When he approaches the baton, the policeman tries to pick it up. But Sosnovskaya, with the help of her foot, prevents the officer from taking possession of the special equipment. It should be noted: at opposition rallies police officers and the National Guard of Russia take care of their batons better than they take care of themselves. And any participant – the young man “pale with a burning look” – wants to take possession of a police baton. Whose head it will then make contact with is another question. It may well be not that of the police, but an ordinary citizens who found themselves caught by chance in the area of the rally…
Coming back to Sosnovskaya. Most likely, the policeman hit Sosnovskaya to prevent loose special equipment from falling into the hands of an aggressive citizen. The blow in no way looks like a brutal beating: training in martial arts has much stronger hits. The blow was not on the girl’s chest, but significantly lower. Which indicates the unwillingness of the law enforcement officer to cause a trauma on Sosnovskaya. The physical training instructor of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and National Guard are well aware that for women the breast glands are the most vulnerable place.
The previously unknown Darya Sosnovskaya became a celebrity in a day. The participant of the Eurovision Song Contest and showman Sergey Lazarev called the policeman “inhuman person on duty”. Rapper Egor Kreed went even further: he asked his 11 million audience of subscribers of his social networks to help search for the “inhuman person on duty” and promised to do everything to draw attention to the incident with Sosnovskaya. Dima Bilana’s producer Yana Rudkovskaya asked Kreed to “bring this issue to an end”.
“Human rights” resources brought “heavy artillery,” deploying the first stars who came to hand with a terrible story about a beaten police girl. And how will any normal person react to such a story? They’ll say that it’s disgusting. The singer Sati Casanova reacted in this vein.
Kazanova and Rudkovskaya, apart from human feelings for Sosnovskaya, are clearly driven by women’s solidarity. In the liberal media it has long been found that emotions prevail in people of art because of their profession. Perhaps, having learned the true background of the story with Sosnovskaya, its “star” defenders will change their opinion.
The “indicative beating” of Sosnovskaya falls perfectly in the line of liberals – defamation and dehumanization of law enforcement – “chain dogs of the regime”. The methods from the fertile soil of Euromaidan in Kiev are driving forward. At the next stage of the “revolution of dignity” in Russia, cute girls like Sosnovskaya will burn “chain dogs” alive with Molotov cocktails…
Musa Ibragimbekov
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