Attack on activist shocks Russia

By Patrick Jackson
BBC News Online

German is the son of a physicist and a maths teacher

A brutal assault on a Moscow student who tried to expose an alleged police rape ring on the city's metro seems to have stirred the country's youth like no other issue.

German Galdetsky, 19, has been in a critical condition in hospital since he was shot in the head with a rubber bullet by an unidentified attacker near a city railway station on 25 March.

Police launched a formal investigation into both the attack on German and his allegations this week but the country's political establishment has maintained a deafening silence.

Not even the horrors of Chechnya have provoked as much debate among Russia's young, Moscow journalist Sergey Sokolov told BBC News Online.

It's good that there are people like you, German, who are still capable of getting something done Russian net user

The deputy editor of Novaya Gazeta (NG) newspaper estimated that between 40 and 50 internet websites had been discussing the case.

The maths student launched a one-man campaign this February to bring to light the alleged routine rape of young women stopped by police officers late at night in the metro.

Other contributors from all walks of life have been offering their services to assist German's family or support his cause, reports NG, which has for years run campaigns of its own against alleged police abuses.

'Easy targets'

German reportedly began investigating the rape allegations after spotting a girl being led away by police in Moscow's Pushkinkaya Square underpass and challenging the officers.

Terror attacks have put more and more police on Moscow's streets

The police let the girl go, saying she was a prostitute, but German interviewed her himself and was told she had been threatened with arrest if she did not agree to have sex with them.

German, who had tried unsuccessfully to photograph the officers with his mobile phone, filed a complaint but no action was taken due to a lack of evidence.

The student then launched a campaign on the internet to track down other alleged victims and said he had uncovered cases at stations around the city centre.

According to his findings, corrupt police officers would seek out lone girls who appeared to be from out of town and demand to check their ID, exploiting the city's tough visitor registration laws.

Once stopped, the girls would be delayed until the last train had left at 0100, then the officers would try to intimidate them into having sex.

"The cops know who to 'slow down'," he told NG in an interview published last week before the police investigation began.

Caught on camera

The interior ministry has set up a special team under the personal supervision of the minister, Rashid Nurgaliyev.

Officers from the internal security department, the criminal police and organised crime squad are to investigate both the shooting of German on wasteland near Yaroslavsky Station and the dossier he had been compiling on the metro police.

It appears that German was shot at close range with his own pistol - a rubber bullet gun - during a dispute with two strangers.

CCTV footage from the station shows him speaking to two grown men before they move out of sight. Shortly afterwards, one of the men is seen running away and German staggers out with a head wound, NG reports.

The injured student managed to make a statement to police before losing consciousness, in which he said he had pulled out his pistol in self-defence after being struck by a bottle, then lost it in the scuffle.

Campaign grows

While the investigation continues, people sympathetic to German's cause have called for his work to be continued, perhaps through a campaigning group.

Lawyers, doctors, computer programmers, artists and journalists have all offered their services, NG reports, leaving their contact details on forums.

According to Sergey Sokolov, only one political organisation has taken an interest in the case: the youth wing of liberal party Yabloko, which lost its seats in parliament at the last election.

"There is no law and order," writes a contributor to NG's own net forum, otkryto.ru.

"It's good that there are people like you, German, who are still capable of getting something done."