Deputy of the Kirov district of Samara Sergei Turusin has been hiding from regional security forces since March 13, who threaten him with criminal charges after publishing a video about fraud in the 2018 elections. Turusin himself reported this to Mediazona; earlier, the Samara publication Zasekin wrote about the persecution of the deputy.
According to Turusin, on March 11, he published on his YouTube channel a video from the “Mafia” series, dedicated to falsifications in the elections in the Samara region and in other Russian regions in the 2018 presidential elections. Turusin has been publishing similar videos since 2016 — his channel now has 310 subscribers. The episode description says that work on it was completed two years ago, but «the maximum effect of its publication can only be achieved now.»
According to Turusin, around noon on March 13, a paddy wagon and several other cars drove up to his house in the private sector of Samara. The deputy was not home at the time.
“I just left the house, one might say, to buy bread,” he says. “I was not far away and saw that a paddy wagon and another eight to ten escort cars had arrived. And I, so to speak, disappeared.”
Turusin says that his wife was at home — the security forces inspected the rooms in her presence, without providing her with any documents.
«She asks: 'For what?' «For his political activities.» All the closets were opened, where you could hide, everything was checked. They called the police, their UAZ stood in front of the gate for two days,” says Turusin.
On the same day, the security forces arrived at his mother’s apartment, where Turusin is registered. Police were also on duty at her house for two days, the deputy says.
Since March 13, Turusin has been on the run and keeps in touch with loved ones by calling them from other people’s phone numbers.
“They [the security forces] They visit everyone periodically — just now they came to see friends and said: “Now if he surrenders, we will give him a fine, and if he doesn’t surrender, there will be criminal liability,” says Turusin. According to the deputy, he does not know what kind of criminal case the security forces are threatening him with.
The Zasekin publication writes that Turusin “predicted that in March 2024, in three days of voting, Putin will win with 70% of the artificially created turnout election commissions will "draw" 70% of the votes.» According to the telegram channel, Turusin had previously received threats demanding not to publish videos about violations.