Late on the evening of Friday, 3 July, security forces violently detained teenagers walking around the Kitai-Gorod area—including minors. The first to report this was streamer Vitaliy, who was livestreaming on Twitch during his detention. According to those detained, they were beaten, insulted, and tasered.

Dozens of young people were taken to the police station: there, according to detainees, they were photographed and had their personal details recorded, but no official reports were issued.

Here’s what those who were involved had to say:

Georgiy, detainee (in an interview with Bereg):

—I was walking past Gorka Park in the Kitai-Gorod area with a friend. Suddenly I was struck from behind on the neck, forced down onto my knees, grabbed under the arms, punched in the face, and then in the leg. Once I was in the police van, I realised they’d detained more or less typical Moscow zoomers.

Behind me in the van, people were shouting the whole time. One guy was being especially harassed—it seemed he was queer, a bit feminine. <…> The officers said to the other detainees: “Come on, hit him, or we’ll taser you right now.” And two detainees beat this guy. He got out [of the van] with his face smashed up. At the police station the cops tried to talk him out of making it public. They were seriously scared, because you could easily document physical injuries.

Another guy had a panic attack. The cops started telling the crowd to push the guy forward [in the van] so they could zap him with the taser—saying it would make the panic attack stop. I only heard it, since there was barely any space to turn around [because of the crush].

When the police van was driving, people held onto the bars so they wouldn’t fall over, and the officers threatened to hit their hands with batons. I could feel the shocks from the taser coming through the crowd—literally through several people. The crowd would get noisy, then there’d be a taser shock—and complete silence. <…>

When they finally let us out into the courtyard outside the station, it turned out that [from several police vans] there were about 100 of us. They told us to split into two lines—adults and minors. The latter were about two thirds. Things had calmed down a bit by then; some young people were just verbally taunted. <…>

But the riot police who detained us seemed completely unhinged. Maybe it was because of some weird order from their bosses. Imagine, a car driving through the city centre, and one of the officers shouts out the window: “Hey, faggot, come here!” Then they get out and grab him.

Milena, witness (in an interview with Bereg):

—At one point, I turned my head and saw two riot police nearby. They walked up to another passer-by, grabbed him and twisted his arms behind his back. He wasn’t resisting at all—but they started hitting him.

I asked what was going on—they rudely told me to go away: “Move along, nothing to see here.” They claimed it was supposedly a document check. Why you’d need to take someone to a police van for that, I don’t know…

I moved away and warned other young people not to go in that direction. I noticed they were mainly grabbing very young people—almost children, about 14–17 years old. There were very few adults among those detained.

Vitaliy, detainee (full text available at Mediazona):

—They just started beating the shit out of me. They punched me in the face, they hit my calves. Just so you understand, I’m literally limping now, I can’t walk, fuck. They tell me: spread your legs. They hit me on the legs so I’ll do the splits, fuck’s sake. They beat me from side to side like a ping-pong ball, and nobody cares. They threw me [in the police van] like an animal. Then they brought in another guy and all my other mates. <…>

He just grabs my mate and tases him three times, fuck. The guy just collapses and starts screaming—everyone’s in shock, yelling. And then he says: “What’s your problem, fuck? Want me to shave your head, or what? What are you grinning about?” <…> Basically, total humiliation.

Dmitriy (name changed), detainee (recorded by ”Ostorozhno, Novosti”):

—I wasn’t fighting back, but I was in shock. I said: “Sir, please don’t touch me,” after which the officer started punching me in the kidneys and face. He used a taser, pushed me up against the wall, grabbed my things and called me a “faggot.” <…>

They told us not to take out our phones, saying we’d be killed straight away. I couldn’t call anyone, my eyes were closing, and only after 20 minutes did we drive off. <…>

I was trying to understand what was going on—we were completely sober. My kidneys still hurt even now. I stood there, hunched over, and they said: “Have you already notified everyone?” I answered: “I wasn’t in any state to do that.” They said: “Look at yourself, you look like a fucking faggot.”

It’s not known exactly how many people were detained or what the raid was specifically connected to. However, at the end of June, the Telegram channel Baza, which is close to the security forces, reported that police regularly carry out raids in the Kitai-Gorod area. The publication links these to the fact that there have been at least 20 scuffles and fights there recently.

Read our guide for ideal detainees—and share it privately with your friends and family (doing so publicly is unsafe, as the Russian authorities have designated OVD-Info as an extremist organisation). In this guide, we explain how to stay calm even if you’re detained, what you may experience, and how to protect your rights.

Take care of yourself, and if you need advice, contact us via the Telegram bot @OvdInfoBot or by email at info@ovdinfo.org.