They beat me, I don’t even remember how many times. They threw me around the room.” Voronezh activist recounts beating by security forces

“They beat me, I don’t even remember how many times. They threw me around the room.” Voronezh activist recounts beating by security forces

▶️ What happened

On May 17 in Voronezh, officers from the National Guard and Center “E” burst in to an urbanist discussion where the city’s development was being discussed.

According to participants, masked security officers arrived about half an hour after the discussion began. Around ten people were detained in total. One of those detained was activist and former candidate for deputy of the Volenskoye rural settlement Kirill Derevsky.

▶️ Taser, threats, and beating

Derevsky believes the security forces came specifically for him.

“Thirty to forty minutes after the start, I saw the first man in a mask. He came in and was not looking in our direction. I thought, well, one person doesn’t mean a detention.

The second.... The third...

Shouts rang out. Everyone dropped to the floor. They took the phones.

Is Derevsky here?

Yes.

What does the phone look like?”, he recalls.

After that, the activist says, the security forces began demanding the password to his phone and using violence against him.

“They started demanding that I unlock it. At the same time, the first shock hit my heel. I didn’t give the password. They hit me again. Kicked me a little. They led me away from everyone else.

We’ll take you away from here and you’ll remember the password,” Kirill says.

According to him, the officers beat him, pulled his hair, threatened him with prison, and then grabbed scissors and threatened to “give him a haircut.”

“They beat me, I don’t even remember how many times. They threw me around the room. They demanded that I unlock it. They put me in a shrimp position and told me to lie there like that,” the activist says.

▶️ What happened next

Later, those detained were taken to a police station allegedly for “questioning.” Derevsky says he was held longer than the others and questioned last.

While already at the station, the security forces unexpectedly said that they “didn’t need” the phone. Then, the activist claims, the officers photographed him using the phones of other detainees and said: “This is a souvenir for the girls.”

The security forces also took Derevsky’s old candidate ID, which he had left over from the 2025 elections.

In the end, everyone was released without any reports being filed.

🛟 Subscribe to OVD-Info to understand how repression works in modern Russia.

Kirill Derevsky / Photo: RusNews