Russian Protester Raped by Police—Report

A Russian opposition activist was allegedly raped and beaten by police in Moscow after taking part in an anti-war poetry reading.

Police raided a flat in Moscow on Monday and arrested poet Artem Kamardin, 31, along with his girlfriend Alexandra Popova, according to independent Russian newspaper Novaya Gazeta Europe.

Speaking to the paper, a source said officers "beat Kamardin severely and put a dumbbell in his anal opening."

Kamardin was forced to issue an apology which police filmed and was later uploaded to social media platform Telegram.

In the video, Kamardin, with apparent bruising on his face, said: "I apologize, ask for forgiveness and repent in front of the multinational Russian people for what I said yesterday in Triumfalnaya Square."

Popova claimed the officers tortured her, showed her a video of her boyfriend being raped, and threatened to gang rape her.

She said: "There's a lot of superglue on me, because law enforcement agents used superglue to glue stickers onto my face, they tried to glue my mouth shut, pulled out my hair, kicked me, and threatened me—they told me that five of them would rape me."

Popova also claimed that $600 which had been stored in the flat disappeared during the raid. On Sunday, Kamardin took part in an anti-mobilization poetry reading in Moscow's Triumfalnaya Square, near the monument to famed poet Vladimir Mayakovsky.

Leonid Solovyov, Kamardin lawyer, confirmed his client reported being raped and beaten by police to the Kommersant newspaper.

Anti-Putin punk band Pussy Riot tweeted: "Our comrade, Russian activist Artem Kamardin was tortured and raped just now by Russian police.

"Cops severely beat Kamardin and put a dumbbell in his anus, says his girlfriend, who policemen forced to witness the rape. She was beaten & threatened to be raped by 5 policemen."

Two other activists, 26-year-old Nikolai Dayneko and 21-year-old Yegor Shtovba, were arrested in connection with the Triumfalnaya Square poetry reading according to Russian investigative outlet Meduza.

In a separate incident, online news outlet Sota reported police raided the Moscow apartment of anti-war activist Daria Ivanova, who was "strangled, kicked, punched, grabbed by the hair and beaten against the surrounding objects."

The Russian government has been contacted for comment. Newsweek has been unable to verify the allegations.

Moscow has been rocked by protests since President Putin ordered a partial Russian mobilization to support his invasion of Ukraine.

Despite Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu saying only 300,000 men with previous military experience would be drafted, there are reports Russians with no military history have been conscripted.

The U.S. based Institute for the Study of War said: "The Russian mobilization system is struggling to execute the task Russian President Vladimir Putin set and will likely fail to produce mobilized reserve forces even of the low quality that Putin's plans would have generated unless the Kremlin can rapidly fix fundamental and systemic problems."