Russia: Antifascist Alen Volikov detained in Moscow in a probe into a 2011 brawl
Submitted by Редакция on 7 November, 2012 - 14:00
At about 10.30 p.m. on November 6, antifascist Alen Volikov, 23, and his girlfriend were walking out of a shop in Moscow when police operatives, who drove up in three cars, ran over to them. According to the woman, they presented criminal police IDs and explained the detention by the fact that Volikov is on a federal wanted list.
Most likely this explanation is not true, as the lawyers for the other antifascists detained as part of the same criminal probe, Alexei Olesinov and Alexei Sutuga, did not find any information about people who are on wanted lists. It is likely that the federal wanted notice may be backdated, which was the case with Olesinov's detention in February.
It seems likely that Alen Volikov may become the third suspect in the probe into a brawl at Moscow's Vozdukh Club. To recap, during a punk gig in mid-December 2011 some of the gig-goers had a quarrel but they quickly made up. However, the venue's security guards, armed with non-lethal weapons, became involved, the gig was stopped, and the club was emptied. At the door, a brawl, which involved shooting from non-lethal weapons, started between gig-goers and security guards who said they were nationalists. Two people were injured.
Later, criminal proceedings were initiated, and two well-known antifascists and social activists, Alexei Olesinov and Alexei Sutuga, were detained. They were held in pre-trial detention for several months, but, as Novaya Gazeta reported repeatedly, in all this time the investigators were unable to present any proof of their guilt.
When interviewing witnesses in the Vozdukh brawl case, investigators expressed interest in Volikov, and admitted that they view Alen as the main participant in the fight.
Alen Volikov's friends and relatives do not know where he is at the moment, and are afraid that police may attempt to beat self-incriminating and false confessions out of the antifascist.
During the detention, Volikov's girlfriend was told that he would be taken to Pyatnitskoye local department of the Interior Ministry. But there is no such police station in Moscow, and Zamoskvorechye local department of the Interior Ministry, which is located in Pyatnitskaya street, told Novaya Gazeta that they do not have a detainee named Alen Volikov.
From Novaya Gazeta newspaper website, Nov 7, 2012
By Yegor Skorovoda