Police officer reportedly visits Moscow high school and warns that protesting will ruin their lives

An anonymous high schooler in Moscow has leaked an audio recording to the website Mediazona, capturing a speech by a visitor dressed in a police uniform, who introduced herself to the class as a juvenile case inspector. In her remarks, the woman threatened the students with criminal prosecution for attending political protests, warning that they’d have no legal recourse, if a case against them is opened.

“As you know, we’ve had demonstrations here in Moscow, and because of that there’s administrative liability, and then criminal liability,” the policewoman explained to the high-school class. “And all this talk of, ‘Oh, I was just passing by’ — it doesn’t impress me anymore. I’m just going to enter it into the records, and you’ll be meeting not just with the local officers, but the police investigators.” She then added that she will file any charges without regard for mitigating circumstances, telling the class, “Whether you were there, whether you were walking by, hanging out, or if you were just going to the bathroom — I don’t care. I’m just going to enter it into the records, and then you're kaput.”

The police officer spoke to more than one class, and the student who leaked the recording to Mediazona also taped a second speech, where the woman expounded further on the consequences of becoming a registered juvenile offender. “After you’re registered, you can forget about your future and your plans for the future, because you won’t be admitted anywhere,” she warned. “This isn’t like smoking a cigarette or [inaudible] on a park bench — it’s far more serious. [...] And I doubt it will do wonders for your parents at their jobs. Being registered is no picnic, as everyone finds out. And that’s it. Because we send out the information everywhere: we let employers know that such and such employee’s child is in our registry for this or that.”

After the police officer’s remarks, the school’s deputy principal also addressed the students, saying, “The main thing is that you must understand that the people trying to involve you in this are just manipulating you. They don’t care at all about your political views. For them, you’re just numbers. They count you up — a hundred, a thousand people turn out. During the war, they called this ‘cannon fodder.’”

The deputy principal then recalled an 11th grader who was supposedly caught up in legal problems after attending a protest, and only escaped at great personal expense. “God forbid anyone should endure what he went through,” the school administrator said. “Because it’s just unnecessary. Be smart, and understand that your parents will also be hemorrhaging money in the form of huge fines, and your life will be in the same boat.”

According to Mediazona’s source, the police officer spoke to 9th graders and 10th graders, and possibly other classes, as well.