“He announced it was the police”
The Human Rights Council announced the attack on Igor Kalyapin on its Telegram channel. HRC staff promised to keep the situation under control and also wished their colleagues a speedy recovery.
“On Wednesday evening, in the Nizhny Novgorod region, HRC member Igor Kalyapin was attacked by an unidentified person. He tried to cut off her face and strangle her. Our colleague managed to call the police and the criminal was taken into custody. Investigative actions are currently ongoing,” the HRC said in a statement.
The organization announced that after the attack, Kalyapin was hospitalized with the suspicion of concussion.
The human rights activist told RIA Novosti that the attacker introduced himself as a police officer and said he had to kill him.
“A man who introduced himself as a police officer from Nizhny Novgorod was far from Nizhny Novgorod, in a remote village where it is unclear how he ended up. We celebrated a birthday there, we didn’t drink much alcohol. And this man suddenly attacked me… He didn’t explain anything, he said he had to kill me, which he conscientiously tried to do for 15-20 minutes, beat me, tried to pierce my throat with a piece of glass,” he said. said Kalyapin.
He noted that he did not feel well, but that “nothing terrible” had happened to him. Kalyapin added that he was “nauseous, dizzy” and “apparently had a broken nose and a concussion”. The victim suggested that the attacker may have been one of those who treated him “rudely”.
“After my interview with one of the popular bloggers, people on the street come to me, shake hands and offer help. Naturally, since there are such people, there are also unfriendly ones. Now the police find out if he is an employee. Probably not enough. He probably drank alcohol and passed out,” says the human rights activist.
He added that a group of law enforcement officers came to the scene, the attacker was detained and the investigation continues.
“Face Distorted”
In a comment to socialbites.ca, human rights activist and journalist Eva Merkacheva stated that Kalyapin invited the aggressor to her home after the fake police asked her to “speak”.
“Recently, he was mostly in his little house in the Nizhny Novgorod region. He has a neighbor who is a law enforcement officer there. He was visiting her here, and there was this man. When Kalyapin introduced himself as a police officer and, in particular, as the head of the criminal investigation department of the Internal Affairs Directorate of the Nizhny Novgorod Region, he even believed that it was logical for him to be there when they met with a policeman. There may be another cop there. But the man behaved strangely from the very beginning and said that he wanted to talk to Kalyapin. “Let’s go to my house,” says Kalyapin, as he lives next door. They got together at his house, he knocked him down, he supposedly said he had some kind of order. Kalyapin began to resent what happened, began to strangle him. Then he broke the door, there was glass in the door, took out a piece of glass and started cutting it,” he said.
He also believes that a person dissatisfied with his human rights activities may have attacked Kalyapin.
“There are a lot of marginalized people who don’t like Kalyapin in principle, believing that he’s making very harsh statements about such agents and the like. Kalyapin still has an ideologue for the fight against torture, perhaps one of his ideologists really did a lot for this. We’ve revealed a lot with him, we’ve traveled a lot in torture zones lately. Then Kalyapin and I made all kinds of appeals to the Investigative Committee. It’s hard to say here. I don’t think the guards are customers. It seems to me that this is a kind of marginal type, who, in principle, does not like the activities of Kalyapin, ”she added.
According to MK, Kalyapin hid in a safe place during the attack and managed to call the police on his own. The attacker was arrested. They later reported that the man did not hit the “bases” and the reasons for his action were unknown. Kalyapin himself is currently in the hospital. His life is not in danger, but he will receive a long treatment.
The Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs reported that the police have now determined all the circumstances of the conflict that took place in the Nizhny Novgorod region.
“At present, the applicant has been referred for a forensic medical examination. After the conclusion of the examination, which will determine the severity of the damage to the health of the citizen, the events will be given a legal character. Previously, the conflict occurred on a local basis and was not related to the official and social activities of its participants.