The offices of the Centre of International Protection and of the Human Rights movement were attacked last night.

During the night unidentified persons occupied the premises of No. 7, Maly Kislovsky Lane, which for the past 10 years or so has been occupied by the Centre of International Protection, founded by Karinna Moskalenko. A quasi-military operation was conducted on the first floor. The same building houses the offices of the Human Rights movement, and these also suffered in the attack.

This began at around 11 pm. Lawyer Svetlana Davydova, working in Room 22, was the only member of the Centre still there. The intruders, of whom Lev Ponomarev says there were about 20, burst into the offices, shearing a metal door off at the hinges. They told Svetlana Davydova to leave but, fearing for the Centre’s archives, she refused.

The invaders then wrecked the stairs to the first floor, where the Centre has a separate entrance, and blocked another door through which it was possible to get down to the ground floor with panels and sacks filled with cement. Having finished the heavy work, the main group of attackers departed, leaving behind just two of the intruders in the barricaded office. “Svetlana Davydova was virtually their hostage,” Karinna Moskalenko exclaimed indignantly.

According to eyewitnesses, it took the police around two hours to turn up, and even then they appeared to take little interest in what was going on. The last two nocturnal visitors left in a police car. The promised investigating officer never appeared. Karinna Moskalenko has no doubt the case will be put on the back burner.

“In order to shrug off our complaints, the authorities will claim this was an ordinary break-in, but I am not going to believe that. This was an act of intimidation. These are the offices where our experts who conduct cases in the European Court of Human Rights work. We have yet to check whether any documents were taken,” she added.

The night’s events made it impossible for the Centre to open today.