Former Georgian Interior Ministry official Lasha Shergelashvili, who served as the head of the Armaments Department of the Special Operations Directorate, said on Formula TV that a banned substance was used to suppress a protest outside the Central Election Commission in 2020. When asked if he had any suspicions, he replied that he "knew for sure that it was used" as he was there at the time.
In Kotelniki near Moscow, the parishioners of the mosque recorded a video message to Putin. They complained about the actions of the riot police and ask for help to punish the police officers. The latter disrupted the Friday prayer.
“Without taking off their shoes, they burst into the room where people pray. Showing disrespect, shouting, using obscene language, they used physical force. They insulted the parishioners, most of whom are citizens of Russia,” one of the witnesses said in the video.
According to the applicants, there are signs of Islamophobia in the actions of the security forces. The parishioners of the mosque are mostly natives of the North Caucasus, Tatarstan and Bashkortostan. Among foreigners, it is visited by people from Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan.