Siberian police plied businessman with vodka and tried to force him into army contract, family alleges
Police in the Siberian town of Ust-Kut plied a 54-year-old businessman with vodka, held him for almost a day and tried to force him to sign a contract to fight in Ukraine, his wife and daughter have alleged in a complaint to prosecutors. According to the complaint, at least 17 men may have been detained and taken to the enlistment office in the same way over the past two weeks.
The man, identified as Vladimir Shch., escaped when he was allowed outside for a cigarette and his wife met him there, according to the family, who spoke to the independent outlet Baikal People. Officers allegedly planned to take him to the regional assembly point near Irkutsk because contracts with the Defence Ministry are not formally concluded in Ust-Kut.
The family said that on the night of 20 September, local police officer Nikolai Konatovsky took Vladimir from an apartment after neighbours complained; brought him home, drunk, to collect his documents; and then delivered him to a police station, where his phone and papers were confiscated. Officers gave him and another man detained at the same apartment food and vodka. Vladimir spent 12 hours at the station.
The next morning he was taken to the military enlistment office, with police continuing to give him alcohol on the way. He was made to sign papers he did not understand, his relatives said. In addition to being intoxicated, he did not have his glasses.
He was then driven to a hospital for a medical examination and afterward returned to the police station. Throughout, he was kept under watch and was even escorted to the toilet, according to Baikal People.
His wife, whose name was not given, went to the hospital, but Konatovsky refused to release him, accusing her of “obstructing the signing of a contract for the special military operation”, using the Russian authorities’ term for the full-scale war in Ukraine.
Vladimir got away by chance. After the medical examination, the officers eased their supervision and allowed him to step outside for a cigarette. His wife met him there, put him in a car and drove him home.
Konatovsky has since been searching for him, the family said, and has visited his registered address several times. He told relatives that if he found Vladimir, he would be sent to war regardless. Vladimir is now staying with family, who try not to let him go outside alone. They fear he could be tracked down on his way to work.
Police were slow to return his documents, insisting he come to collect them himself. After Baikal People published its story, the outlet learned that his belongings had been returned.
Vladimir's daughter, Svetlana, noted in the complaint that she had heard police receive bonuses for recruiting people to fight in Ukraine. She stressed that she could not verify this herself and called on prosecutors to look into it. With a new group of men detained after Vladimir's case, the number of people affected comes to about 20, Baikal People reported.
Similar reports from the town have appeared before. In July, the local outlet Ust-Kut24 wrote about men in military uniform who grabbed a man with a disability on the street and took him to the enlistment office, where he was threatened and pressured to sign a contract. His relatives managed to take him home.
In June, the same outlet reported three such cases at once. Police were said to have detained people with suspended sentences and threatened to send them to prison if they refused to sign.