Phone Call to Putin (Russian: звонок Путину) is a slang term used by some Russian police departments for torture method which consists of administering electric shocks to the person's earlobes. According to Amnesty International, torture with electric shocks is common in Russia.
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. After surviving the alleged "phone call" torture, he jumped out of a third-floor window to escape his tormentors. The fall resulted in a spinal cord injury that rendered Mikheyev a paraplegic. His case was taken to the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg, France and became notable as "the first serious victory in a case of torture" brought to the Court against Russian government.