10:59, 18 September 2026

The lawyer reported the abduction in Rostov-on-Don of the former actress from Donetsk.

The former puppet theater actress from Donetsk, Olga Shchekina, was placed in a car and taken away by unknown masked individuals after serving ten days of administrative arrest in Rostov-on-Don, her lawyer Ilya Slyusarev stated. According to him, the police did not investigate the identities of these people.

Olga Shchekina is a former puppet theater actress from Donetsk. In April 2023, she began posting videos on social media to Ukrainian songs and openly expressed a pro-Ukrainian stance. After the videos were spread by pro-war groups, Shchekina began receiving threats, and at the end of May, she was detained. A few days after her detention, security forces, according to Shchekina, forced her to record a video with apologies. In August, a court fined Shchekina 77,000 rubles for public calls for separatism and displaying prohibited symbols, reported Meduza on October 4, 2023.

The former puppet theater actress from Donetsk, Olga Shchekina, was supposed to be released from special detention center No. 1 in Rostov-on-Don on the evening of September 17 after ten days of administrative arrest. Two lawyers were waiting for her at the detention center. According to them, a car with Donetsk license plates entered the facility, and masked individuals placed Shchekina in the car and drove away. The incident was reported today by the Telegram channel "Caution, News" citing Shchekina's lawyers.

The lawyers called the police and asked to identify the masked individuals and the grounds on which Shchekina was held in the car. According to the defenders, the arriving police officers did not check the documents of these individuals and allowed the car to leave the detention center.

"It seems she is being taken to prison now. She recorded a conversation [with the security service employees], where they discussed among themselves how to frame her, plant drugs, write a post on social media in her name in support of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, and arrest her for that," one of the human rights defenders was quoted in the publication.

In his opinion, Shchekina was abducted for her stance.

According to Shchekina's lawyer, police officers arrived at the scene. They did not identify the individuals who abducted Shchekina or the grounds for holding the woman. According to lawyer Ilya Slyusarev, Shchekina was supposed to be released from the detention center on Semashko Lane in Rostov-on-Don on the evening of September 17 after ten days of administrative arrest. In front of two defenders, two men with covered faces placed her in a car with Donetsk license plates and drove away. Slyusarev's comment and a message from another lawyer of Shchekina were published by a human rights Telegram channel last night.

According to the second defender, the men were in civilian clothes and masks, and Shchekina was placed in a black Infiniti with Donetsk license plates. The masked individuals did not introduce themselves or explain the grounds for their actions, the lawyer stated.

The police officers who arrived at the detention center did not identify the men or the circumstances under which Shchekina ended up in their car, Slyusarev stated. "They did not establish either the identity or the circumstances. Who are they? Why is there a person inside the car? On what grounds?" the lawyer said.

According to Slyusarev, the patrol and traffic police demanded that he remove a car that was blocking the passage of the car with Shchekina, but did not check the documents of the men inside. After the lawyer moved the car, Shchekina was taken away in an unknown direction. The defenders were preparing a statement about the abduction, the human rights defenders indicated.

On September 7, the Lenin District Court of Rostov-on-Don sentenced Shchekina to ten days of administrative arrest under part 1 of Article 20.1 of the Code of Administrative Offenses of Russia for petty hooliganism, the Telegram channel noted.

As of 10:55 AM Moscow time on September 18, there were no comments on the websites of the Ministry of Internal Affairs for the Rostov region and the main department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs regarding the lawyer's claims about the police actions at the detention center and the abduction of Olga Shchekina.

"Caucasian Knot" also reported that in Rostov-on-Don, consecutive administrative arrests were applied to activist Anatoly Berezikov. After the second arrest in the spring of 2023, lawyers met him at the detention center, but the activist was taken directly to court, where he was given a new term. On June 14, 2023, Berezikov died in the detention center during his third arrest.

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Translated automatically via OpenAI from https://www.kavkaz-uzel.eu/articles/426727