"Mediazona" posts story about torture of Saint Petersburg resident in Abkhazia

Artyom Russkikh, a resident of Saint Petersburg, has returned from his vacation in Abkhazia with fractured ribs and haematomas. Local law enforcers, suspecting him of links with drug dealers, beat him up, threatened to rape him, hung him up from a tree and drowned him in a mountain river, the "Mediazona" reports.

Artyom was detained in Abkhazia in the evening on April 7 and taken to some power structure. Law enforcers demanded from him to confess to being a drug kladman, but the refused. "Then they put me against the wall, with my hands to the door, and began beating my kidneys from behind," Artyom recalls.

Then, he was taken to a small vacant lot and ordered to kneel down. They asked: "Are you a drug kladman? For whom do you work? Where are your hiding places? Where do you hide the drugs?" For his every response, as he said, there was a blow. "I was on my knees - they kicked me to the ground; they literally hammered me into the soil with strong kicks. They lift me up by my hair, beat me again and so on in a circle. They constantly said: "There are so many people missing here in Abkhazia that no one will find you, even if we kill you," Artyom recalls.

Failing to receive the needed answers, at about six in the morning, law enforcers took off the handcuffs, took Artyom and his female companions in a car to the border, where they gave them their things and sent them on foot to the border checkpoint, finally advising them never to return to Abkhazia.

The frightened young people did not dare to tell the border guards about their experiences. They got to Sochi, where at the city hospital Artyom had CT and X-rays done. Doctors fixed a fracture of three ribs on the right side, an injury to the right kidney, multiple bruises, abrasions and haematomas.

Darya, Artyom's wife, wrote to all Russian human rights organizations known to her; the young people made a detailed statement, which, together with certificates from the Sochi hospital, was sent to the General Prosecutor's Office and the Investigating Committee of the Russian Federation (ICRF).

This article was originally published on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’ on May 24, 2021 at 09:33 pm MSK. To access the full text of the article, click here.