‘It’s not called the Wheel. It’s called the Carousel.’ How Russia re-arrests dissidents to keep them behind bars indefinitely without criminal charges.
Around and around they go
On November 11, 2025, Russian musicians Diana Loginova (better known by her stage name Naoko) and Alexander Orlov, both of whom were jailed in October for performing songs by banned artists, were arrested for the third time in succession. This time, they were charged with organizing a mass gathering, a misdemeanor offense.
Loginova and Orlov have now spent nearly a month behind bars on misdemeanor charges: each time one sentence ends, the authorities file a new report and send them back to jail. This tactic is far from new for Russian law enforcement — it’s even earned a nickname, the “arrest carousel.”
How does this ‘arrest carousel’ actually work?
It’s simple: a person is repeatedly given short jail sentences on flimsy misdemeanor charges. Law enforcement resorts to this loophole to crack down on major protests or to target individual activists.
The practice has existed for years. According to the human rights group OVD-Info, the first known case of such an “arrest carousel” dates back to 2011.
Here’s how it works in practice: A person is detained. If the authorities don’t yet have grounds to open a criminal case, they accuse them of an administrative offense based solely on the officers’ testimony. The pretext might be something like refusing to show ID to police or using obscene language in public. The court then reviews the report and orders an administrative arrest.
When the sentence ends, the person is met outside the detention center by police waiting to detain them again and file a new charge. The “arrest carousel” keeps spinning until the authorities achieve their goal — to wear the person down psychologically and physically, so they no longer want to call for protests, do human rights work, write about corruption, perform concerts, travel abroad, or whatever else the authorities want to prevent.
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What charges are usually used?
There are no comprehensive statistics on “carousel arrests,” but common charges include disobeying police, violating the procedure for holding a public gathering, disorderly conduct, and displaying extremist symbols — all punishable by up to 15 days in jail for first-time offenders.
Are ‘carousel arrests’ legal?
Unfortunately, yes.
Russian law places no limits on how many misdemeanor arrests a person can serve in a row. In theory, these arrests can go on indefinitely, as long as the authorities continue to file new charges under the right articles.
Nevertheless, according to OVD-Info, “carousel arrests” violate international law and represent a clear abuse of power, infringing on the rights and freedoms guaranteed by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.
Are ‘arrest carousels’ eventually followed by felony charges?
Sometimes, yes.
In some cases, law enforcement uses “carousel arrests” to buy time — to gather, or even fabricate, evidence for a future criminal case. For example, while a person is serving an administrative arrest, their devices can be hacked and examined, their home illegally searched, or something planted there.
According to OVD-Info, at least 58 people have faced felony prosecution since 2012 after first being subjected to such “carousel arrests.” However, the organization’s lawyers note that it’s difficult to identify any consistent pattern in how the tactic is applied.
Is it possible to get out of a ‘carousel arrest’?
It’s extremely difficult to fight “carousel arrests” under Russia’s current legal system.
Each administrative case in the “carousel” is reviewed by the court separately. Judges don’t take into account that the person has already served several consecutive administrative arrests — or that the new “offense” conveniently appears in police reports just before the previous sentence ends.
Explainer by OVD-Info