Moscow mayor asks city police chief to take personal control of Ivan Golunov case

Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin has asked Oleg Baranov, the chief of the Moscow Ministry of Internal Affairs, to take the criminal case concerning Meduza special correspondent Ivan Golunov under personal control and consider it “as objectively as possible,” Sobyanin’s press secretary Gulnara Penkova told The Bell.

Golunov was detained on the afternoon of June 6 on suspicion of attempted large-scale drug trafficking. Golunov denies the charges and says that the drugs were planted. 

Following his detention, Golunov was not allowed to call a lawyer. He was beaten by police and not permitted to call an ambulance or seek medical attention for his injuries. Additionally, the police refused to take swabs or nail clippings from the journalist, which could have confirmed that he did not come in contact with narcotics. 

Many of Golunov’s journalistic investigations concern contracts concluded by the Moscow mayor’s office, as well as business related to Moscow bureaucrats.