Authorities threaten legal action against those reporting police roundups in Russia’s Penza region
The Interior Ministry in Russia’s central Penza region has threatened anybody sharing information about a string of recent mass detentions made by the security forces with legal consequences.
In a post on Russian social media platform VK on Sunday, the regional Interior Ministry said that recent reports circulating online that military service-aged men were being forced to enlist to fight in Ukraine after being rounded up in the cities of Penza, Kamenka and Kuznetsk were false and that the police were acting strictly in accordance with the law.
“Over the past few days, false information has been circulating online claiming that police officers have carried out numerous arrests of men with a view to sending them to the special military operation zone,” the post read, adding: “These video posts have no connection whatsoever with deployment to the special military operation zone.”
“Stirring up this situation leads to a rise in crime and impunity. … Those spreading false information will be held accountable in accordance with the laws of the Russian Federation,” the statement continued, adding that that the detentions were “routine” and were being “carried out periodically across the region”.
On Thursday, Get Lost, an underground organisation that supports Russian men attempting to avoid conscription, warned that it had received multiple reports of men in the Penza region being detained on the street, on public transport and while driving, before being bundled into waiting vehicles and taken to sign contracts with the military.
In a video posted by Penza resident Natalya Solomina on Wednesday, several women can be seen pleading with uniformed men outside a military recruitment office in an apparent attempt to prevent their loved ones from being taken away against their will.
