Roman Pichuzhin

Member of the election commission. Diagnosed with epilepsy.

On 20 February 2021, there was information about the initiation of a case of violence against a representative of the authorities at a rally in support of Alexei Navalny on 31 January. The name of the suspect was not mentioned, but indirect data suggested that it was Pichuzhin, who was serving a 30-day administrative arrest after being detained at the rally. On 2 March Pichuzhin was detained after leaving the special reception centre and sent to custody the next day.

On 29 June he was sentenced to two years in a general regime colony. Pichuzhin was transferred to the colony before the judgement became final, but then transferred back. He was released on 26 October 2022.

From Pichuzhin's letter of 13.08.2021: "All prisoners from "our" transfer had bags - in them, they carried their belongings. It was impossible to run - the bags were heavy, and I had a bad back. But the staff cursed and ordered me to run. The dogs were barking. I think I have only seen such things in Nazi films. As I understood, this "ritual" was invented to humiliate the prisoners once again. I couldn't run - the heat and heavy bags. I took a step. Then one of the guards shouted "What don't you understand?!" and hit me on the neck with his hand. Since each of the officers had a video recorder on their chests, I started to express my complaints to them during the search and medical examination. They remained silent. After that, they put me in a solitary cold cell and kept me there until 03 a.m. on 11 July. My travelling ration along with all my other belongings were taken away from me. It was impossible to sleep in that cell. It turned out that I was deprived of sleep and food from 9 p.m. on 09 July to 3 a.m. on 11 July. So I was tortured by hunger, heat, cold, and sleep deprivation. Together with all my belongings, my orthopedic mattress, which I need because of my health problems, was taken away from me. Instead, they gave me an imitation of a mattress, which was impossible to sleep on. There are elbow-length rats in pre-trial detention centre No. 1 in Vladimir. There are no windows or ventilation in some rooms. It's hard. After quarantine, I was transferred to Kolchugino SIZO-3. It's a bit easier here, but the care packages often don't arrive, FSIN-shop and FSIN-letter don't work...".