Olesya Vertinskaya

Affiliated media: Road Control, Journalist

Incident date: January 8, 2022

Attack type:

• Interrogation

Who attacked: Authorities

Source: Ak Zhaiyk

Location: Kazakhstan, Atyrau Province, Atyrau

Additional information:

On January 8, police officers took blogger and journalist of the media outlet Road Control Olesya Vertinskaya from her home for interrogation. She was taken to the building located in the yard of the city department of internal affairs — Dinamo gym, which was dubbed in social networks as a «torture room» for participants of rallies. The journalist’s mobile phone was taken away and all video materials were deleted. On January 5, Vertinskaya as a correspondent filmed what was happening on the roads of Atyrau and in the city. Police officers behaved rudely and in a boorish manner. One of them searched the journalist, another started kicking her legs to make her spread them wider, she was hit on the back of the head. After a police officer named Arystan or Arlan (the journalist did not remember exactly) stood up for her and demanded that the illegal actions stop, Vertinskaya was released. She spent more than six hours at Dynamo.