Anapa resident who criticized the war in Ukraine disappeared after torture and “carousel arrests”

An Anapa resident who criticized the war in Ukraine disappeared after torture and “carousel arrests.” Nothing has been known about his fate for 50 days

FSB officers abducted 45-year-old elevator electrician Maxim Ovchinnikov on February 27 after two administrative arrests.

▶️ First arrest

On January 27, he was detained on his way to the gym. His mother said that during the search, FSB officers beat him until he lost consciousness. Ovchinnikov was taken away by ambulance, and at the hospital he was diagnosed with blunt abdominal trauma and a contusion of the anterior abdominal wall.

The next day, the Anapa City Court arrested him for 15 days under the article on disobeying FSB officers (Part 4 of Article 19.3 of the Code of Administrative Offenses). The ruling said he was of operational interest to the security forces and had tried to hide.

▶️ Reason for the persecution

It is not known exactly why FSB officers detained Ovchinnikov. When he was in the hospital, they told his mother that he had been detained “for comments in banned channels.”

According to people close to him, the man held anti-war views, watched the Dozhd TV channel, and followed opposition resources.

▶️ Torture

According to Vot Tak, in the temporary detention facility FSB officers threatened Ovchinnikov with torture and forced him to confess on camera to some crime. He did not tell his loved ones what he had admitted guilt to.

“The security officers brought electric wires, attached them to his scrotum, and told Maxim: ‘Either you say what we ask you to say, or we will use electric current’,” a source who learned this from Ovchinnikov himself told Vot Tak.

According to the source, after that Ovchinnikov began thinking about suicide: “After the torture, he told his mother that he had ‘dark thoughts.’ His mother told him: ‘Don’t you dare do anything to yourself’.”

▶️ Second arrest

On February 12, he was detained as he was leaving the temporary detention facility and taken to Gelendzhik. On February 14, the local court arrested the man for another 15 days.

The ruling claimed that the day before, he had tried to provoke a fight with police officers. Ovchinnikov told the court that at that time he was not yet in Gelendzhik.

“It is obvious that a person of sound mind and memory could not, after allegedly leaving the Anapa temporary detention facility on 12.02 after serving a 15-day sentence, go to Gelendzhik without a passport or phone, without money or bank cards, and then get another 15 days again,” his mother said.

▶️ Abduction

One day before the end of the second arrest, on February 27, Ovchinnikov was again taken away by FSB officers. Nothing has been known about him since then.

While still in the temporary detention facility, the man was told he would be sent to SIZO-5 in Krasnodar. Staff at the pretrial detention center told his mother that he was not there.

The FSB Directorate for Krasnodar Krai claims that agency officers did not detain Ovchinnikov.

Maxim Ovchinnikov / Photo from Ivan Astashin’s Telegram channel