August 01, 2023

Retiree Tortured for Anti-War Comments


Retiree Tortured for Anti-War Comments
A Russian court. Pavlovskteam, Wikimedia Commons.

A retiree wrote anti-war comments on his VKontakte after hearing about his daughter's experiences living in Kyiv during the war. Novosibirsk courts have now opened a criminal case against him for "calls for terrorism and mass riots."

The pensioner, identified as Takhir Arslanov, was harassed by authorities and government bodies for his online posts. On January 27, Rosfinmonitoring, a government financial monitoring service, put him on a list of "terrorists and extremists" and blocked his bank account.

Arslanov reported that authorities took his tablet and hard drive, stomped on his vegetable garden, and wrote obscene inscriptions on his house. The FSB conducted two searches at the his home and interrogated him until 5 a.m. "I can't bear these fun and games anymore, because I'm 67," Arslanov said.

Arslanov sent a letter to Novosibirsk City Council Deputy Svetlana Kaverzina, who published it on July 29. Kaverzina wrote on VKontakte: "You are messing with grandfathers for their comments, but not with PMC Wagner, and you think you are tough, right?"

In an interview with SotaVision, Arslanov said, "My child spent the night in a bomb shelter, do you understand?"

His case will be heard by a Novosibirsk court on August 2.

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