Security Forces Abducted a Moscow Suburb Resident, Tortured Him for Several Days While Handcuffed to a Radiator, and Ultimately Charged Him with Possession of Explosives
His relatives told IStories about this case. The explosive device as an evidence was likely planted on him
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The Russian Interior Ministry’s investigative unit has opened a criminal case for possession of explosives against 37-year-old Moscow punk musician Vladimir Bolobolov, his relatives told IStories.
Bolobolov disappeared without a trace on the morning of August 27 after leaving a café in Reutov. As he later recounted to his relatives and attorney, several men attacked him from behind on the street and quickly forced him into a car. During the ride, they put a bag over his head, beat him with stun guns, attached wires to him, ran electric current through his body, and strangled him, demanding that he confess to “what they already know about him.” The kidnappers did not specify what exactly they wanted to hear from Vladimir. IStories has obtained photographs showing characteristic traces of electric torture on Bolobolov’s body.
At the same time, his relatives filed a missing person report with the police, but law enforcement responded only by saying that he had “probably gone on a bender.”
Later, Vladimir, still with a bag over his head, was taken to an unknown location, handcuffed to a radiator, and the beatings and torture continued. On August 28, Bolobolov was brought to his own apartment in Reutov, where, without any warrants, a search was conducted. Officers from the Moscow and Moscow Oblast branch of the FSB showed him a homemade explosive device disguised as a power bank, which they claimed to have found in his home. According to Bolobolov’s own testimony, he had never seen this item before the search.
The search lasted about six hours. He was allowed to call a friend and ask her to take his cat. The night of August 28 to 29, Bolobolov again spent under “interrogation” with torture at an unknown location, handcuffed to a radiator and with a bag over his head. In this blinded and immobilized state, the security forces put an object in his hand that, by feel, resembled a homemade explosive device, which they claimed to have discovered in his home, according to a relative recounting the man’s memories.
On August 29, Vladimir regained consciousness in the police station for the Dorogomilovo district (he learned this only from his cellmates), where he was forced to sign an administrative protocol for petty hooliganism and was released onto the street that evening without any means of communication.
On August 31, despite his lawyer’s protest, the man was detained again after he filed a kidnapping complaint at the Reutov police station and went to the trauma center to document evidence of torture. Bolobolov was placed under administrative arrest for 15 days, and after serving his sentence, was detained again. Vladimir is currently being held in a temporary detention facility in Balashikha; tomorrow, a court will decide on pretrial restrictions.