‘The parents feared retaliation from the police’ Russian drill instructor forces student to kneel in corner and threatens to tase her for smiling

A drill instructor at a vocational school in central Russia has reportedly been fired after an incident in which he forced a student to kneel for an extended period of time and threatened to tase her as punishment for smiling in class. According to the student’s lawyer, the instructor’s regular misconduct was an open secret at the school — but because he’s a police lieutenant, parents were afraid to speak out. Meduza lays out what we know about the situation.

A drill instructor in Russia’s Sverdlovsk region has been fired from his job at a vocational school after he forced a 17-year-old student to kneel in a corner and threatened to shock her with a taser because she smiled in class, local news outlets reported on Tuesday, citing the student’s lawyer, Sergey Barsukov.

“The girl has arthritis, and she told [the instructor] about this, but he didn’t listen and continued with his class [while she kneeled in the corner],” Barsukov told journalists. “One day earlier, he put a different girl in the corner and hit her with a belt in front of everyone.”

According to Barsukov, the instructor is a senior police lieutenant named Ivan Korsak. The lawyer said that Kosak had repeatedly reminded students of his position in the police force and that he asked them to pitch in money to buy “gifts” for him. “These [gifts] included alcoholic beverages and computer games. We have screenshots of the kids’ payments,” Barsukov said.

The lawyer also said that school administrators and the students’ parents knew about Korsak’s behavior but did not report him because they feared retaliation from the police.

Korsak, for his part, insisted to multiple Telegram channels that his punishments were meant in a “joking” manner and that he didn’t intend to humiliate anyone.

The regional branch of the Interior Ministry told It’s My City that it has launched an investigation into the instructor’s behavior.

In September 2022, an article appeared on the school’s website titled “Ivan K’s Story of Success,” apparently referring to Korsak. It quotes the policeman as saying that he decided to teach at the school because “every citizen should serve their Motherland, defend it, and glorify it with successes and heroic feats.”

“Now, Mr. Korsak is an example of what a modern policeman should be. And he acknowledged that he gets a lot out of interacting with students as well: it improves his skills and allows him to learn new things,” the article says.