Russian opposition group member forced into psychiatric clinic
A member of a Russian opposition group led by former chess champion Garry Kasparov has been forcefully put in a psychiatric clinic in what activists said was revenge for critical reporting.
Marina Litvinovich, a spokeswoman for Kasparov’s United Civil Front, said that the forced treatment of Larisa Arap was the first such move by authorities against a member of the group, which has angered the Kremlin with street protests.
“That smacks of Soviet-era practice of locking dissenters in psychiatric clinics,” Litvinovich told The Associated Press.
Arap, 48, a member of Kasparov’s group in the northern port city of Murmansk, was bundled into an ambulance by police on July 5, her daughter Taisiya said.
She had been visiting a doctor to secure documents attesting to her mental health, as Russian law requires in order to receive a new drivers licence, the daughter said.
When the doctor realised Larisa Arap was the author of an article published in an opposition newspaper in June that criticised conditions at a local psychiatric hospital, she returned with police, Taisiya Arap said in a telephone interview.
A receptionist at the clinic where the daughter said Larisa Arap was being held would not confirm she was there, saying she could only provide the names of patients to their relatives.
Taisiya Arap said she was appealing her mother’s detention in court, but feared she could be moved to a psychiatric hospital where conditions were harsher.
Authorities in the past have barred Kasparov and opposition allies from marching through streets in Moscow, St Petersburg and other major cities.
Police beat and detained scores of demonstrators when they defied authorities ban on marches.
