They tied her to a bed and forcibly injected her with drugs”

“They tied her to a bed and forcibly injected her with drugs”

76-year-old Novosibirsk heritage preservation activist Natalia Shamina was tortured in a psychiatric hospital in Moscow. This was reported by Sibirsky Express, citing the All-Russian Society for the Protection of Historical and Cultural Monuments. Shamina heads its Novosibirsk branch.

“Shamina was tied to a bed and forcibly injected with drugs. The police said Shamina behaved violently during the detention, and doctors saw a suicide attempt through a hunger strike. Doctor Berezin concluded that Shamina should be hospitalized,” said Igor Kochetkov, deputy head of the Ryazan branch of the monument protection society.

How Natalia Shamina ended up in a psychiatric hospital

On July 24, Shamina staged a picket on Staraya Square in Moscow. She demanded that Vladimir Putin not sign the bill transferring to the regions the right to strip monuments of protected status. She was detained, but later released.

On July 25, Shamina declared a hunger strike at the monument to Cyril and Methodius in Moscow. She was detained again, taken to the Kitay-Gorod police station, and then to Psychiatric Clinical Hospital No. 1.

Human rights activist Eva Merkacheva noted that volunteers were not allowed to pass belongings to Shamina and visits were banned. In addition, according to her colleagues, violence was used against the heritage preservation activist. Shamina was later released.

And what about the law the activist was protesting against?

Vladimir Putin signed it anyway on July 27. Human rights defenders now fear that cultural heritage sites will be demolished en masse in the interests of developers. Before Putin signed the law, only the chair of the Russian government had the right to remove monuments from the register, but now those powers have been transferred to the regions.

Natalia Shamina / Photo: “Caution, News”