Yekaterina Schulmann says Russian election expert Alexander Kynev’s leg was broken while he was being pressured to confess to treason
Source: Yekaterina Schulmann
Political scientist Alexander Kynev, who was arrested on drug charges, had his leg broken by people demanding that he confess to treason, fellow political scientist Yekaterina Schulmann said on the September 29 episode of her show “Status.”
“His leg really was broken in two places while he was being detained. That’s true, too. It’s also true that they used what had happened to his leg, along with electrical devices, to try to get him to confess to treason. He did not,” Schulmann said.
Schulmann said the information had “come out” and was “now public knowledge, including internationally,” but did not say how she had learned of it.
Kynev’s lawyer, Mikhail Biryukov, told the outlet Ekho that “the lawyers have no documents confirming what Schulmann said.”
Kynev is one of the most respected experts on Russian regional politics and elections. On September 25, reports emerged that a court had ordered him held in custody on charges of producing and selling large quantities of drugs.
The outlet Slovo Zashchite said Kynev was badly beaten while he was being detained. Doctors later diagnosed two fractures in a lower leg bone, and he was admitted to the hospital at the Matrosskaya Tishina pretrial detention center. Biryukov later confirmed that Kynev had been hospitalized after the beating and said that the case materials “concerning the unidentified people who injured him while he was being detained are now part of a separate proceeding.”
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