Riot police raid mosque in Moscow region, forcibly taking worshippers to military enlistment office

Update: Telegram channel Astra reports that singer Mamut Useinov has already been sent to Military Unit 19612 in Naro-Fominsk, Russia, and his phone has been confiscated.

In Kotelniki, a town in the Moscow region, OMON (riot police) officers raided a mosque and took the worshippers to a military enlistment office, where they were forced to sign a contract with the Defense Ministry under threat of criminal charges, according to Mamut Useinov, a finalist in a Russian singing competition television show.

“I would like to report a blatant case of violation of the law by the military enlistment office and OMON. After Friday prayers in a mosque located in the town of Kotelniki, OMON raided the building and took all the men leaving the building, including me,” Useinov wrote.

According to him, law enforcement officers first put the men coming out of the mosque on a bus under the pretext of checking their documents. However, after several hours of waiting, they were taken to the military enlistment office in Lyubertsy.

“There, a medical commission was organized. I was declared fit for service and transported to the contractors’ assembly point in Balashikha, on the Eastern Highway. In the evening, they announced that everyone had to sign a contract for a year, or [they would be sent to] prison. On the morning of October 21, at the formation, I heard that we would all be sent to the SVO,” said Useinov.

He also added that a certain colonel later met with those who refused to sign a contract and announced that they had “decided to be given the opportunity to serve under conscription”.

“I believe that this procedure violated all my rights: they forcibly took me away, I had no opportunity to appeal the decision of the army conscription commission, had no opportunity to provide information about illnesses or beliefs. And most importantly, I did not receive a summons,” Useinov concluded.

In one of his latest stories on Instagram, Useinov said that he refused to sign anything. “They said that the Investigative Committee will come and speak with us tomorrow,” he added.