Arrest, Camera, Action

Since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the FSB has increasingly used arrest videos to publicize politically motivated prosecutions, according to a study by human rights nonprofit Memorial. Researchers examined 70 criminal cases and associated clips, concluding that many scenes were staged, sometimes through deception, threats, or torture. The videos, they say, seek to intimidate government critics and project the FSB’s power.

The study found that the FSB appeared more often in reports by Russian state news agencies RIA Novosti and TASS. The share of FSB-related reports featuring video nearly doubled after the invasion.

Before 2022, footage covered a wide range of cases, from illegal crab fishing and weapons trafficking to corruption and smuggling rare birds. Since then, the clips have mostly focused on Ukraine, especially terrorism and state security allegations.

The researchers identified five recurring segments: surveillance footage of alleged offenses, arrests, evidence displays, prisoner transfers, and confessions. Arrest and confession footage each appeared in nearly two-thirds of the 70 cases. Arrests often feature officers pinning suspects to the ground, handcuffing them and forcing their faces toward the camera.

Some scenes contradict detainees’ accounts. Ruslan Sidiki, convicted of attacking a military airfield and sabotaging a railway, said a police officer stopped him outside his apartment building in Ryazan and asked him to accompany him to the police station for questioning. An FSB video instead shows a task force seizing him near garages before Sidiki calmly recounts supposed recruitment by Ukrainian intelligence. 

Later, Sidiki said to journalists that he was beaten, electrocuted, and threatened with sexual violence between his actual detention and the filming. Injuries were documented upon his admission to pretrial detention.

Researchers found that about a quarter of the arrest scenes analyzed showed signs of staging. The true proportion could be much higher.

Confessions are just as prominent and often sound like prosecutors’ paperwork. Suspects use legal language that can help support more serious charges. In a recorded statement, Andrei Alekseyev described an attempted firebombing of a military enlistment office twice in 30 seconds as a "terrorist act."

Crimean graffiti artist Bogdan Ziza said FSB officers recorded at least five versions of his apology. He said they demanded that he cite Article 205 of Russia’s Criminal Code, which addresses terrorism, and repeatedly changed his lines. When a superior deemed his remorse insufficient, he said officers beat him and made him record another take.

Georgy Tabuyev said that an FSB officer promised him a two-year sentence if he helped reenact the seizure of an explosive device delivered to him in Donetsk. He complied, then spent a month in secret detention, where he said he was tortured. He was ultimately sentenced to 15 years in prison.

Igor Pokusin’s wife said officers fired shots over his head and threatened to kill or electrocute him unless he confessed on camera to traveling to Ukraine to join its armed forces. Pokusin died in custody 18 months after his arrest. 

For some abductees in Russian-occupied territories, a recorded confession reportedly precedes the end of incommunicado detention. Investigative outlet Tribunal describes people held in secret until they agree to recite investigators’ scripts. Only then, it says, can they contact relatives or lawyers.

The researchers conclude that over the past several years, the FSB has developed a system for producing videos for propaganda purposes. These videos appear designed to create an atmosphere of total control; demoralize and intimidate those deemed disloyal, deterring them from taking any undesirable actions; demonstrate the security service’s effectiveness; and impose its own version of events surrounding individual cases.