Russian activist Gleb Babich said Monday afternoon that he was detained by police in Moscow and taken to a military enlistment office.
Babich, an environmentalist who mounted a failed bid to get on the ballot for the 2024 Moscow City Duma elections, said the incident occurred while he was filming police raids against undocumented migrants outside the Teply Stan metro station.
“Seconds later, a riot police officer jumped on me, stamped my face into a police van, hit me several times on the legs [and] dragged me into the van,” Babich wrote on Telegram, adding that he was threatened with charges of “terrorism.”
Pro-Kremlin media reported that several hundred undocumented migrant workers were detained during the raid, some of whom were taken away in police vans.
Babich said a police officer took his passport after discovering that he was not registered for military service due to his deferment as a student. After that, police drove the activist to a military enlistment office before letting him go free.
“It is not clear why he was brought there,” his supporters later wrote on Telegram. “He is now free and met with his friends.”
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