The complaint, filed by the man's wife and daughter, alleges that police held 54-year-old entrepreneur Vladimir Shch. for almost 24 hours at a police station and the enlistment office and pressured him to sign a contract with the Defense Ministry, the outlet Lyudi Baikala reported, citing people familiar with the events.

According to relatives cited by Lyudi Baikala, district police officer Nikolai Konatovsky arrived in the evening at an apartment where Vladimir was visiting, responding to a neighbor's noise complaint. The officer photographed the man asleep on a couch and then took him home to retrieve his passport. He told the wife her husband was detained without explaining why.

Vladimir spent the night at the police station. According to his account, officers fed detainees and bought them vodka. His phone and documents were taken. His wife and daughter were unable to reach him.

In the morning he was taken to the enlistment office. There, according to his family, he spent about two hours signing "some papers" whose contents he did not understand. The wife says the district officer continued buying alcohol along the way. Relatives also note that Vladimir has poor eyesight but was without his glasses at the time.

After the enlistment office he was taken for a medical examination. Back at the police station, the man was escorted to the toilet under guard, according to his family. When his wife came to collect him, the district officer refused to release him and accused her of "obstructing the signing of a contract for the SMO."

A Defense Ministry contract cannot be concluded in Ust-Kut; it is processed only in Irkutsk. Police planned to take the man there. His release came about by chance: after the medical commission, supervision eased, Vladimir asked to step out for a cigarette, and his wife put him in a car and drove him home.

His documents were returned to relatives only after they appealed to prosecutors. Other details from the daughter's complaint later emerged: over the previous two weeks, at least 17 men in Ust-Kut may have been taken to the enlistment office under the same scheme. Lyudi Baikala specifies that with a new group of detainees the total reaches roughly 20 people.

After the incident, the district officer visited Vladimir's registered address several times. According to relatives, he told them: "God forbid we see him on the street or anywhere — he'll go to the SMO anyway." He also told the daughter, according to sources, that the man is now "on the hook." Vladimir himself, according to a neighbor, promised to quit drinking after the incident.

Attempts to force Ust-Kut residents to sign Defense Ministry contracts have been reported before. In July, the outlet Ust-Kut24 reported that people in military uniform seized a man with a disability on the street and took him to the enlistment office, where they tried to force him to sign a contract through threats; relatives managed to take him home. In June, the outlet reported three similar cases — according to its data, police detained people with suspended sentences and threatened to send them to a penal colony if they refused.