Протесты

ON MARCH 5TH, a solitary picketer stood in a public plaza in Ivanovo, a small city northeast of Moscow, with a homemade sign stating: “*** *****”.

This week, The Final Straw Radio spoke with Petr, a Russian anarchist member of the group Autonomous Action, who is living in Europe right now. For the hour we speak about the invasion of Ukraine, a bit about the resistance inside of Russia to the war drums and the Putin regime, the dangers of a nuclear conflict, the impacts of increased sanctions and anarchists organizing across the borders of Russia, Ukraine and Belarus against the war and against tyranny.

The Russian army has invaded Ukraine. Putin has lost his senses and his army is bombing cities, shooting civilians, and killing children. More than one million people have fled the country in order to escape from Putin’s “liberators.”

As the full scale military operation began this morning, it is important to show that the Russian people don’t need this shameful war. There were dozens of antiwar protests all over the country in the past days mostly in the form of single-person pickets, which according to Russian laws don’t need any notifications. But the majority of protestors were detained nevertheless.

Hello, it is Saturday, and we are continuing our podcast "Trends of order and chaos". This is episode 43. Of course, you know perfectly well what is the main topic of the last week.

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Yesterday, on February 21, an extraordinary meeting of the Russian Security Council was held. As part of this theatrical act, Putin forced his closest servants to publicly “ask” him to recognize the independence of the so-called “people’s republics” of the Luhansk People’s Republic [LPR] and Donetsk People’s Republic [DPR] in eastern Ukraine.

We got in touch with several anarchist comrades to talk about the recent protests on the streets of different cities in Russia: looked into political events of 2020 and how they brought people to the situation with protests.

With the comrades we managed to clarify if Navalny is a nazi and the whole protest should be ignored by the anarchists or leftists. And of course we talked about anarchists and their participation in protest movement.

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For over three months, people in Belarus have been fighting against the authoritarian regime. In 26 years, dictator Lukashenko has built a system aimed at suppressing any political life. The coronavirus and a number of economic problems have greatly changed what is happening in the country. In a few months, Belarusians have learned to self-organize. The presidential elections provoked a wave of the largest protest in the country's history! But the tyrant does not want to give up his throne. At least 5 people were killed (some died under strange circumstances).

We must not forget the anarchists and anti-fascists suffering repression in Russia! We are calling for people to take action of all forms to express support for these prisoners, to protest the prison system, and to spread information about the use of torture as an instrument of repression in Russia.

On 27th July, my friend Vladislav Barabanov took part in the rally for fair elections and permission of the independent candidates in Moscow. He was one of 1,500 detainees at this action and one of 13 people accused of criminal offense.

"Article 212 case " or "the Moscow case" is another example of lawlessness in Russia's everyday life. We wish to tell the whole world of people dear to us getting battered and imprisoned for their active citizenship.

In Moscow, at the end of August 10, plainclothes police officers arrested the anarchist Alexei Polikhovich on his way home from Russia’s largest opposition demonstration since 2011. A local Moscow court formally charged Alexei with “petty hooliganism” and sentenced him to 13 days in jail. The arrest stemmed from a combative and passionate speech Alexei gave to thousands in Moscow that day.

On the evening of may 17th, some dozen acivists gathered in the office of the anarchosyndicalist workers' union FAU in the center of Jena, Central-Eastern Germany, for a ''Long Night of Solidarity'' to get informed on the repression and torture against our comrades in Russia and Italy. There were presentations on both cases, that are similar in the aspect of the use of anti-terrorism operations and fabricated accusations against political activists.

We are Antifa Bulgaria/Антифа България and we would like to show our  solidarity with our Russian comrades, who are facing these  unbelievable mass repressions. We did an action in front of the Russian embassy today, 15th of March  - the International Day against Police Brutality. We were immediately  approached by the Gendarmerie, who were guarding the embassy and  subjected to an identity check.

Next year, 2019, the Father Frost against Putin-festival will once again take place in Helsinki.  From the 5th to the 6th of January you can join discussions about the state of affairs in Russia and the x-USSR region, and get a chance to meet various social and political activists without the fear of police or special service operations. (fear of infringement from the side of police and special services). 

October 28, 2018 in Helsinki in front of the Russian Embassy. 10 people took part in the action, mostly anti-fascists and anarchists from Russia and some activists from Finland.

On 18th of August the nazis of Nordic Resistance Movement (NRM) have called a demonstration for ”freedom of speech” in Turku, Finland. NRM is organised in Sweden, Norway, Finland and Denmark so far, and aims to create one national socialist Nordic state through revolutionary means.

On March 18, 2018, as part of an international solidarity campaign with Russian antifascists and anarchists, there was a protest in Helsinki near the embassy of the Russian Federation.