A video showing two policemen in riot gear dragging and punching a female protester in Russia has sparked outrage on social media — with Russian celebrities and human rights lawyers sharing the footage and calling for action over the weekend.
“What kind of a scumbag do you need to be to hit a member of the fairer sex,” wrote singer Egor Krid on Instagram Sunday. “I don’t care what she did. This kind of thing just shouldn’t happen.”
Krid, who has over 10 million followers, shared footage of the Saturday incident on his IG page — which showed the masked riot cops dragging an unarmed woman, identified by Reuters as Daria Sosnovskaya, and one of them punching her in the stomach.
“I’d like to see his face! It’s a damned shame,” wrote Sergey Lazarev, another Russian singer with over 4 million IG followers. “A disgrace!”
The viral video was captured during Russia’s ongoing election protests in Moscow, which have drawn tens of thousands of people. About 60,000 were in attendance for Saturday’s demonstrations, Reuters reports.
In the clip, Sosnovskaya, 26, appears to be trying to stop the officer who punches her from grabbing a billy club. But Russian civil rights lawyer Pavel Chikov, of the legal aid group Agora, says that didn’t give him the right to assault her.
“It doesn’t matter if the investigations establishes concrete harm has been done,” Chikov tweeted, according to Radio Free Europe. “[The officer] is a representative of the state. Regardless of the outcome, the Russian state will have to pay.”
The country’s National Guard said the cop who punched Sosnovskaya does not “belong to Russian National Guard’s units.” Moscow police have launched an investigation into the incident.
“The Interior Ministry’s Moscow Department has ordered a probe into the use of force against a girl detained for violating public order during the August 10 unauthorized rally,” a spokesman told Russian news agency TASS. “All those responsible would be held accountable.”
Chikov has reportedly offered a reward of over $1,500 for anyone who helps identify the cop who punched Sosnovskaya.
More than 350 people have been detained during the election protests in Moscow, which have been going on for about five weeks now. The political unrest stems from the public’s demand for free elections in the city legislature.
With Post wires