5 February 2021
Hi, this is Lena, SMM editor at Team 29.
It has been a difficult week, to say the least. More than five thousand people were arrested after the rally on 31 January. Many were held in police vans cells for hours and were not given water or food. In St. Petersburg police station No. 66, for example, the detainees were not given a place to sleep – they had to lie on the cold floor.
As there were so many people in police custody, our lawyers, together with journalists from Takie Dela, prepared a leaflet on how to find a relative who went missing at a protest and what detainees are entitled to. We also produced information explaining how to behave in court and prepared cards with advice on what to do if police come to search your home.
Team 29 K29 lawyer Valeriya Vetoshkina also spoke about whether it is legal to use tasers on protesters. And the head of Team 29, the lawyer Ivan Pavlov, shared his opinion on the jailing of Aleksei Navalny and new repressive legislation.
Of course, the sentence handed down to Aleksei is is the main event of the week. We are outraged by what has happened and believe that now it is important not to leave the opposition activist alone to confront the system. You can send him words of support by sending a letter to the pre-trial detention centre. We told explained how you can do it here.
There is also some good news. This week Team 29’s lawyers gave our client Margarita Yudina, who was punched in the stomach by a police officer on the day of the protests, contacts of those people who had offered to take in her animals. Thanks to everyone who responded!
Еще Команда 29 выпустила новый подкаст про закон о дискриминации российских СМИ и перезапустила YouTube канал! Теперь каждый четверг на нем будут выходить интервью, а скоро добавятся и другие форматы. Первый гость — Дмитрий Муратов. Первый интервьюер — руководитель медиа-отдела Команды 29 Максим Заговора. Team 29 has also produced a new podcast about the law on discrimination of Russian media law and re-launched our YouTube channel! We shall publish an interview every Thursday, and other formats will be added soon. Our first guest is Dmitry Muratov. The first interviewer is Team 29’s head of media, Maksim Zagorova.
Keep positive and believe in a bright future!
Lena,
Team 29
Translated by Simon Cosgrove
