Olimpiada Usanova, who
is going to court to challenge the protesters’ treatment, has told of
the group’s ordeal after they were arrested and forced to pay fines of up to
£215 for attending a banned anti-war rally in Nizhny Novgorod, western
Russia, in March.
She said: “The females
were searched by undressing and squatting five times in the presence of a
detention centre officer.
“A second humiliating
search was conducted several hours later in the cells and the women were forced
to lift up their shirts, take off their panties, and bare their breasts in the
camera surveillance area.
“I am concerned that
female officers did not close the doors as some women were examined, and male
officers were lurking there.”
Male protesters were not
treated the same way, MS Usanova claimed.
She said: “Detained men
were just patted on their front and back, that’s all. The girls were forced to
strip naked and crouch down.
“And the next day, they
were made to undress again, turning out their bras. This is despite the fact
that every cell has CCTVs.”
The women’s arrest is
reflective of Moscow’s crackdown on those who oppose Vladimir Putin’s
regime.
The Kremlin in March enacted
two laws that criminalize independent war reporting and protesting the war,
with penalties of up to 15 years in prison.
The laws make it illegal to
spread “fake news” about the Russian armed forces, to call for an end
to their deployment and to support sanctions against Russian targets.
The incident echoes accounts
of torture, sexual violence and indiscriminate destruction shared by the more
than six million Ukrainian people who have fled their homes in the wake of
Russia’s invasion.
It was brought to light in a
report by Lydia Kuzmenko in national media ahead of the women’s bid to
challenge their alleged treatment in court as they each demand around £1,700 in
compensation.
Student Ekaterina Devyatkina,
18, is one of several victims who agreed to disclose their identities.
She claimed to be listening to
a musician near the protest rally when she was pushed into a cell-on-wheels and
detained.
