When anti-corruption protests took place in cities across Russia earlier this month, police in St. Petersburg detained over 600 demonstrators.
The experience of these people in jail is highlighting the seemingly widespread abuse of prisoners by the Russian police.
Protester Oleg Kabatov says he had never been arrested before, so he was unprepared for what awaited him. For two days after his detention in St. Petersburg, Kabatov was held in police custody where he witnessed an incident that has provoked widespread outrage.
According to Kabatov and several other eyewitnesses, police officers used pepper spray in the close confines of precinct cells, causing detainees to experience severe breathing difficulties.
“They brought in a very drunk person who was quite aggressive,” says Kabatov. “One of the policemen hit him…then they sprayed the gas and closed the [cell] door…the gas got to us via the ventilation system.”
Kabatov was in a cell with 11 other people, many of whom were so badly affected that their skin turned red, they sweated profusely and coughed constantly. “I had to breathe through my clothes,” says Kabatov.
The ordeal only ended when one detainee, who had smuggled in a mobile phone, summoned an ambulance.
“The paramedic was surprised by what was going on and said ‘you need to get ten ambulances here. What have you done? It’s impossible to breathe,’” according to a woman in a neighboring cell quoted by OVD-Info, an NGO that tracks political arrests. “They checked my pulse and then left,” said the woman, who declined to have her name published by OVD-Info for fear of retribution