Russian citizens who have legitimate complaints about their treatment at the hands of law enforcement should file a lawsuit with the prosecutor's office in order to protect their civil rights.
That's according to Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, speaking to the press on Thursday.
The statement comes after the 21-year-old activist Alena Kitaeva claimed she had a plastic bag put over her head at a police station after being detained at a protest in support of Russian opposition figure Alexey Navalny.
Also on rt.com Not ‘a real Chechen’: Ramzan Kadyrov denounces compatriot who fought Moscow riot police at protest in viral video“If this was really so, then she should already be in the prosecutor’s office and suing,” Peskov said. “She should use all the possibilities provided by law to ensure her civil rights.”
On Wednesday, Kitaeva told the Russian investigative journalism website The Insider that she was threatened inside Donskoe Police Station near central Moscow. Kitaeva says that four officers forced her to give up her password to unlock her phone.
“I told them my password because they threatened to taser me, and they put a bag on my head and started hitting me,” she said. “I did not see what social networks they accessed, but I think they looked at everything.”
She also said that she was threatened with false accusations of assaulting a police officer.
Kitaeva was arrested after taking part in an unsanctioned protest on February 2, following the three-and-a-half-year prison sentence handed down to Navalny. The 21-year-old is a volunteer for Lubov Sobol, a close ally of the activist. Tuesday's demonstration came after two previous marches on January 23 and January 30. According to OVD-Info, a police-tracking NGO that has received some Western funding in the past, 1,386 people were detained at some point on Tuesday.
Think your friends would be interested? Share this story!