MOSCOW. Feb 3 (Interfax) - Russian Investigative Committee Chairman Alexander Bastrykin has demanded that the committee's staff run checks on detained participants in opposition demonstrations in support of opposition activist Alexei Navalny, which took place on January 23 and January 31, on whether or not they are dodging military service, Investigative Committee spokesperson Svetlana Petrenko said.
"The Russian Investigative Committee chairman has ordered that procedural checks be conducted in regard to young men from among the wrongdoers, who might be dodging military service," Petrenko told journalists on Tuesday.
The order was given at an Investigative Committee conference, at which Bastrykin was briefed on the preliminary checks and criminal cases opened in connection with illegal actions at the unsanctioned demonstrations held in a number of Russian cities on January 23 and January 31, 2021, she said.
"The heads of the Russian Investigative Committee's main investigative departments in Moscow and St. Petersburg, as well as the investigative department in the Volgograd region, reported on the ongoing criminal inquiries and the number of minors taken to police stations over violations committed during the unsanctioned demonstrations," Petrenko said.
"The personalities of defendants in the criminal cases are being studied, and materials characterizing them are being analyzed as part of preliminary investigations," she said.
"Alexander Bastrykin underlined the need to not only establish the circumstances of the crimes committed, but also to analyze the reasons why the suspects and the defendants committed these illegal actions," Petrenko said.
Unsanctioned demonstrations in support of Navalny, who was arrested upon his return to Russia, took place in numerous Russian cities on January 31. Similar demonstrations took place in various Russian regions on January 23.