DW journalist arrested at Moscow protest
July 28, 2019
Sergey Dik, a journalist working in DW's Russian desk, was briefly arrested while covering an opposition rally in Moscow on Saturday.
Dik was filming the demonstration on his iPhone at Trubnaya Square in central Moscow when he was detained by special forces officers. He was covering the protests on behalf of DW Russia and had his Foreign Ministry accreditation with him at the time.
He immediately told the police officers that he is a journalist. They asked to see his ID, at which point Dik informed them that he had his passport as well as his Foreign Ministry press accreditation in his backpack.
As he presented his accreditation, the special forces officers told him that it was "some worthless document."
He was then taken to a police van, which transported him, along with 20 other detainees, to the "Marino" police station in southeastern Moscow. A minor and another journalist were also among those detained, according to Dik.
"Of course it's surprising when you're arrested while doing your job. But I wasn't surprised for very long. It quickly became clear that the police were simply arresting everyone arbitrarily," Dik said.
"They just come here, grab someone and lead or drag that person into the police vans — young men, women and also older people — and all without knowing whether these people are actually taking part in the protest," he said.
'I knew something like this could happen'
According to Dik, the local police officers at the station were "surprised" when he told them he was a journalist. While at the station, he showed officers an email confirming that he had an official assignment from the DW Russian department.
"Then they got a little nervous that a journalist had ended up with them. They asked several times how it came to be that I was arrested," Dik said. "After that, it went pretty fast."
After almost an hour and a half in the police van and the station, Dik was released.
"I wasn't afraid. It's not the first time I've worked at a protest. I knew something like this could happen," he said.
According to Moscow police, more than 1,000 people were arrested Saturday during an unauthorized rally by opposition groups to demand fair elections in Russia's capital city.