The phone call to Putin (Russian: звонок Путину, romanized: zvonok Putinu) is a slang term used by some Russian police departments for torture method which consists of administering electric shocks to the person's earlobes, nose, and/or genitals.
[1][2][3][4] According to Amnesty International, torture with electric shocks by security forces and prison, jail, and penal colony guards is common in Russia.
[5][6][7][8][9][10] This method was profiled in publications describing a case of Aleksei Mikheyev who was falsely accused in 2006 of murder while his alleged victim was alive and well.
[1] After surviving the alleged "phone call" torture, he jumped out of a third-floor window to escape his tormentors.
[3][12] Since Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine on 24 February 2022 there have been many reports of torture by Russian forces with the use of electric shocks.