Natalia Sokol and her 2.5 year old son Kasper arrested by plainclothes police officers
On October 18, 2011 at 00.15 AM four plainclothes police operatives from the Center “E” apprehended Natalia Sokol, an artist of the Moscow-based Voina Group, and her 2.5 year old son Kasper. They also tried to arrest Oleg Vorotnikov, in spite of the fact that the criminal charges against him were dropped. Luckily he managed to escape.



Here is Oleg Vorotnikov’s account of the arrest of his wife Natalia Sokol:

“On October 17, at 9 PM at the Alexander Haus hotel (27 Kryukov channel) we had a meeting with journalists Ulf Kalkreuth and Igor Nedorezov from the German ARD television. Before the meeting we communicated with Ulf via email ( ulf.kalkreuth@berlin.de ). Igor Nedorezov met us at the porch and said a strange phrase: “It’s all cool. We’ve owned this hotel for 18 years. The owner is my friend.” Then we stayed in the inner garden for a long time, discussing the preliminary filming. After midnight we left the hotel and started walking along the channel towards Sadovaya street. Ulf was walking behind us, filming constantly. He was carrying the camera in one hand, holding onto his wheeler suitcase with the other.
A car made a sudden u-turn from the other side of the street and stopped abruptly next to us. “Oleg,” Kozlyenok (Natalia's nickname) calmly said to me. We had planned for a situation like this, and I was supposed to flee. I hopped on the bike and made a rush forward, towards the Sadovaya. Several plainclothes cops were running after me. Behind me I heard someone shout, “Stop or I will shoot!” I thought that was pretty funny. “Go right ahead,” I replied in my mind. I’d already gained speed, and was surprised that the car wasn’t following me. I crossed the Sadovaya without looking around for cars, hoping that I wouldn’t get run over. I managed to get away.
At the spot there was a group of plainclothes cops who introduced themselves as passing pedestrians. They promised to test in court and asked provocative questions”.

Today early in the morning a well-known lawyer, human rights defender Joseph Gabunia together with journalists came to the police station #1 (16 Yakubovicha str), where Natalia and Kasper were being detained for several hours. No criminal charges were formally brought against them by the Russian dirty cops. Sokol’s requests to talk to her lawyer and to use her right to make one phone call were rejected. They didn’t let Gabunia enter the police station.

At 4:30 AM Sokol and her son Kasper were released from custody. Natalia had to sign a personal recognizance, requiring her to meet with the investigators again at 7 PM today.

At the same time in October plainclothes cops tried to break into Leonid Nikolayev’s Moscow flat, interrogated his neighbors and shadowed the building.

Earlier this month the Investigations Committee officially terminated two criminal cases against the Voina Group. But the unlawful actions are still going on.

More info on Free Voina web site – http://en.free-voina.org/. For more details and comments, please, write to a[@]plutser.ru