In the Penza region, raids on men have continued, now carried out by people in civilian clothes who do not identify themselves and receive cars from local officials, according to the outlet Agentstvo.
Video of two abduction attempts in the settlement of Bashmakovo was published by Penza blogger Stanislav Morozov. In both cases, the raids were conducted by people in civilian clothes.
Sergei Teplyakov, an employee of a private security company, was nearly dragged out of his gate on July 23. One of the raid participants introduced himself as the new district police officer and asked for his passport. When Teplyakov called the real district officer, they tried to take him away by force. The people who came to him are not known in the settlement, he said. Teplyakov recognized only one — a former police officer and bailiff service employee.
Alexei Denisenko, a seller at a gas equipment store, was taken away on July 22. He was mowing grass in a park because he had been assigned 240 hours of community service. Two strangers demanded he go with them, threatening that otherwise it would be “worse.” In the car sat an employee of the settlement administration; she said Denisenko would be taken “to clarify data” to the administration. Instead, he was driven to Penza.
A relative of Denisenko caught up with the car near a neighboring village. “The car did not brake immediately, I honked and cut it off. Then I got out of the car and took him back,” she told Agentstvo.
Teplyakov and Denisenko filed police reports. Relatives claim that the raids used cars from the local administration. Agentstvo confirmed this through leaks: one car is registered to the “Center for Support of Institutions of Bashmakovo District,” another to the district administration. Head of the administration Tamara Pavlutkina responded “Fake” to questions on WhatsApp.
After these incidents, an informal group was created in the settlement to respond to raids and rescue those being taken away. Some group members were summoned to the police and threatened with being sent to war.
Reports of mass raids in the Penza region emerged in mid-June. The Penza military commissar called the videos staged, the Interior Ministry denied the raids, but local residents say they continue.