Detained or summoned for questioning

• Ask on what grounds you are being held and in what capacity. Administrative detention usually lasts up to 3 hours; for offences that can carry arrest (19.3, 20.2 pt 6.1, 20.3 CAO) up to 48 hours (art. 27.5 CAO).
• Human rights groups usually advise not giving statements: art. 51 of the Constitution lets you refuse to testify against yourself. Access to your own lawyer is requested in writing. If you cannot write a separate request, write it directly in the record under 'explanations': 'I request that my defence counsel (full name) be admitted'. There you can also ask for witnesses to be questioned: 'I request that (full name, phone) be questioned as a witness'. If you have no witnesses of your own, ask for the officers who detained you to be questioned: by surname or, if they did not give it, remember the number on their chest badge. Name only witnesses who agree: their details will go into the case file.
• Records and copies. Read every record in full, strike through blank fields and write any disagreement under 'explanations'. Ask for a copy of the detention record at once: in administrative cases it is given on request (art. 27.4 CAO), in criminal cases it is your right (art. 46 CPC). If you get no copy, OVD-Info advises signing the original with the note 'copy not received'. Do not sign blank forms or empty sheets. You do not have to write an 'explanatory note' (OVD-Info).
• By law a phone may be seized only with a written record, and the law does not expressly require you to give your passcode. In practice detainees are sometimes pressured to unlock their phones, so decide with a lawyer in advance how to handle it. Keep your lawyer's and family's numbers on paper.
• Where to turn: Net Freedoms Project (@nfp_hotline), First Department, Prison Lawyer. OVD-Info advises via its bot but no longer refers people to lawyers inside Russia. OVD-Info is designated 'extremist' in Russia. It says that asking for advice is not taking part in its activities, but contact it from a device you will not have to hand over if detained. Don't call hotlines from your main SIM card: the call stays in the operator's records.
• Injuries. Ask for an ambulance and for your injuries to be written into the record. The temporary detention centre (IVS) does a medical check on arrival: ask for your copy of the report. Within a day an emergency clinic tells the police about bruises, contusions and concussion, giving your name, address and the likely cause (order 664n), but get treatment anyway. OVD-Info advises recording the circumstances in your own words; you don't need to discuss your views. Details: 'Doctors and police'.
• Names and a phone call. A police officer must state their position, rank and surname and show their ID on request (Police Act, art. 5). A detainee may make one call to family within 3 hours (Police Act, art. 14; art. 96 CPC). In a criminal case the investigator, with the prosecutor's consent, may withhold notice of the detention to keep it secret (art. 96 CPC).

Designations of organisations in this guide: OVD-Info (foreign agent, extremist, on Rosfinmonitoring list). Contacting them carries a risk: do not write from a phone that may be seized, and do not repost their materials.

current as of 8 October 2026. More: First Department (foreign agent); OVD-Info: what to do if detained (extremist); Instructions for police duty stations (MVD order 389), paras 15-16; Temporary detention rules (MVD order 950), para 5: record of injuries; Health Ministry order 664n: when hospitals notify the police; Police Act, art. 5: officers must identify themselves (in Russian); Police Act, art. 14: detainee's rights, phone call (in Russian); Criminal Procedure Code, art. 96: phone call and notifying relatives (in Russian); Code of Administrative Offences, art. 27.4: copy of the detention record (in Russian); Criminal Procedure Code, art. 46: rights of a suspect (in Russian); Criminal Procedure Code, art. 124: complaint to the prosecutor (in Russian); OVD-Info: administrative arrest, detention centre, medical check (in Russian) (foreign agent, extremist, on Rosfinmonitoring list); OVD-Info: I was beaten by the police (in Russian) (foreign agent, extremist, on Rosfinmonitoring list); First Department: provocations, including informers in cells (in Russian) (foreign agent)