The owners of the bars Underdog and La Virgen apologized to the security forces, who broke into the establishments the day before and humiliated visitors, forcing them to sing patriotic songs, and some were electrocuted. “We apologize to everyone for the events of these days, including all law enforcement officers who had to participate in these events because of us and waste their time,” their appeal, published by lawyer Konstantin Yerokhin, says .
According to the management of the bars, in total, the FSB officers detained 40 people in two bars, including a teenager and a cleaning service employee.
“The entire staff is now demoralized and scared. Also, visitors and participants of the project receive numerous threats on the Internet, which we assess as real. Of course, we are afraid of a repeat of the raid and other negative events, and we are ready to do everything necessary to avoid them, ”the bar owners say in the appeal.
The statement also says that the co-founder of the bars, Pavel Kosov, should withdraw from the management of the establishments after the searches. Konstantin Erokhin told Kommersant that in the summer of 2022, Kosovo, along with other bar owners, was detained as part of an investigation into involvement in the financing of Ukrainian charitable organizations. Then, in the account of one of the institutions, information appeared about the sale of records in support of the Kyiv Angels organization, which sent funds to help Ukraine. Later, the project management stated that their networks were hacked and they did not post this ad.
