18th of October, lenta.ru news service transmitted that judge refused to sentence defendants of the so called "Antifa-RASH" case in Nizhni Novgorod. Judge Olga Koloverova demanded police to reinvestigate the case, in order to exclude contradictions, which are currently obvious.
In August, Pyotr Silayev was arrested in Granada, Spain by anti-terrorist special forces. He was then moved to Madrid, where the Audiencia Nacional was to make a decision about his extradiction to Russia. All this based on charges stemming from a demonstration organized by anti-fascists and enviromentalists against the city administration of Khimki, Moscow region. He was released after 8 days, but he is still stuck in Spain, pending the decision of his extradiction to Russia.
Hello everyone!
Yet another period of our remand imprisonment is approaching its end, but I am certain, that we will be kept locked up a few months more, even without any developments whatsoever in the fabricated criminal case against us.
You already know the details of our arrest and the violations connected to it, but now I want to share with you my thoughts regarding the political context surrounding our case.
In "March of the millions" in Moscow 15th, nationalists attempted to invade tribune, scanning their slogans. They were met with a hail of bottles, small stones and sticks. Former leader of "Movement Against Illegal Immigration" Aleksandr Potkin was got hit with a stick, his supporters lost flags and scarfs.
27th of July, Basmanniy district court of Moscow remanded Alexey Polikhovich for one month. He is 16th suspect for participating to rioting in Bolotnaya square 6th of May 2012, in day of inauguration of Vladimir Putin. He was third arrested anarchist - Aleksandra Dukhanina has been in a house arrest since 29th of May, Stepan Zimin has been in remand prison since 9th of July. Alexey Polikhovich was arrested in the evening of 25th of July, his house was searched and his computer was confiscated.
(This is a partial English translation of a program, aired in Dozhd TV channel 17th of August, which is embedded below.)
Center of Counteraction Against Extremism ("E-Center") in the city of Vladimir did not liked amateur movie "Russian anti-racist skinheads", and they opened a criminal case against makers of the film. According to them, film incited hatred against "social group of skinheads and nationalists".
The 11th general meeting of Autonomous Action will take place from 20th to 25th of August 2012 European part of Russia. Autonomous Action is the largest libertarian communist organization of the xUSSR. Our website is avtonom.org. We invite representatives of libertarian and anarchist organizations and individuals as guests. We will discuss internal organization issues and action, conduct theoretical workshops and self-defense trainings.
Την άνοιξη του 2012, αντι-φασιστικό κίνημα στη Ρωσία έχει υποστεί μια νέα καταπίεση. Το πρόσχημα για την καταστολή ήταν το περιστατικό στην Μόσχα κλαμπ "Αέρα", όπου η 17η Δεκεμβρίου δεν υπήρχε σύγκρουση μεταξύ των επισκεπτών punk hardcore συναυλία και την προστασία του συλλόγου. Οι φρουροί ήταν ακροδεξιών απόψεων και προκαλούν τους επισκέπτες. Λόγω της εμφάνισης συγκρούσεων διακόπηκε πρόωρα, αλλά οι φρουροί προσπάθησαν να διαρκέσει μερικά επισκέπτες ως ομήρους, υποσχόμενος τιμωρία τους από τους φίλους τους, ποδόσφαιρο χούλιγκαν-εθνικιστές. Επισκέπτες αντιστάθηκαν, φρουροί άνοιξαν πυρ από ένα τραυματικό όπλα, αλλά στο τέλος έχουν εξουδετερωθεί. Άλεξ Olesin συνελήφθη το βράδυ της 12ης Φεβρουαρίου στην Αγία Πετρούπολη, Αλεξέι Sutuga συνελήφθη το βράδυ της 17ης Απριλίου στη Μόσχα.Προς το παρόν, δύο είναι υπό κράτηση στη Μόσχα.
This letter was given to Masha's friends by one of her lawyers, Nikolay Polozov. It was written back when she didn't have an opportunity to pass letters to anyone. She was transferred to a more desnely-populated prison cell after.
March 12, 2012
Second day of pre-trial detention.
Make sure to keep track of what is happening in the very centre of Moscow and St. Petersburg in real time! Our reporters will follow left-wing activists collecting their real-time comments on what is going on!
Fights with "The Nashi's" and the police, arrests and barricades - you will be the first to witness it all!
The rally broadcast will commence at 19:00 Moscow time on March, 5. Make sure not to miss it!
26th of Febryary, first freemarket, organised by anarchists, was organised in Severodvinsk of Arkhangelsk region in White sea. During freemarket, clothes, books, household equipment and food was distributed - for everyone in need, homeless people included. During freemarket, interviews were given to local press, video is to be published later. We call everyone to build alternatives to capitalist system right here and right now, a struggle for a better life should go on in every fronts - in home, in work, in education and in the street. Most important is not to be passive and to believe to ones strenght. Truth is in our side, we will win!
Page 2: An Invitation to anti-fascist demonstration of 19th of January to commemorate our comrades Stanislav Markelov and Anastasiya Baburova, murdered that day back in 2009.
Page 3: Editorial: A struggle with the unknown. Valeri Listyev writes about uncertainities of the current situation.
Society
Page 3: Army of Clowns against assault rifles. A short history of Rebel Clown Army and other creative anti-militarist initiatives in UK, USA, Israel and Russia.
Page 4: On voluntary basis. A piece by I.P. on necessity of communitarian experiments.
Page 6: Touchy patriotism. Pyotr Ryabov writes about artificial creation of patriotic mythology in today's Russia.
Today, two years have passed since our comrade Ivan Khutorskoy was murdered in Moscow. On occasion, we publish an article which was written for Avtonom journal in Russian, and translated for Abolishing the Borders from Below in English.
“You are made of some different fabric. You are way more prepared than me for this kind of shit. I figured it out, when you told me by telephone, that Vanya is not anymore” - a young comrade put it like this once, in the frame of one discussion. We were standing on the platform of a metro, wagons of steel were scurrying on metallic rails. Their metallic clamps were squeezing
my insides. Yes, my young friend, I am definitely ready for this shit.
Upon the death of Vanya, in spirit I was already in my 4th decade, although my physical age will correspond to that much later. My twenties I had spent in a skinhead-casual frenzy, spiced with an anarcho-communist baggage of ideas. For me, all those years passed side by side with two guys. One of them left all of that behind a long time ago, now he is more into stuff like wifes/mistresses/kids/cars. Another one was Vanya. If I will be alive, healthy, and out of jail my fourth decade will not be boring either, but it will not be the same.
I am often faced with one basic question: whether, if knowing the consequences I would still take the same actions I did last year. Of course I would. Yes, we all suffered the consequences, but we also proved that average people, when united are able to scare insolent bureaucrats. Nowadays in the Russia this is worth the effort. Who are the police investigators and field operatives? TThey are subordinates who are generally too frightened to admit that they are the slaves of their bosses, deceiving themselves that things are otherwise. Many of them have clearly understood that they have to make some junk and invent a sort of extremism. Maybe there are also sincere stupid people who believe in their work. These fools do not see the extremists in officials and instead search for them in housing districts.
We call on concerned academics around the world to sign the petition to Administration of Tyumen State University and Russian higher education authorities.
Andrey Kutuzov is a Russian anarchist academic who has been teaching linguistics at Tyumen State University (Western Siberia). He is also an activist and participant in grassroots movements. 7 September 2011 Andrey was dismissed by Gennady Chebotarev, the rector of the University. We believe that Andrey was dismissed because of pressure from the local authorities on the university administration. The official reason for the dismissal was declared “committing an immoral deed” referring to the recent case of repression for his political activities.
Today, about 10 a.m. Sosnovoborsky City Court granted the petition of the political prisoner Alexey Sokolov parole.
At 15 p.m. Alexey appeared in front of penal colony №40, where lawyer Roman Kachanov waited for him. I managed to phone to take short interview with Aleksey:
- Alexey! How are you and what do you feel? How much court decision on your parole was expected?
Ecological and human rights activists and social organisations are welcome to the camp. The camp program will include protests against the destruction of forests in the Moscow region, workshops and trainings.
28th of April, hip-hop musician Andrei "KUBA" Kravchenko was kidnapped by police in Moscow in university, where he was about to pass his final exams in faculty of PR. He was handcuffed and taken to police station of "Bogorodskoe", from where he was further sent by airplane to his hometown, distant city of Chita in Siberia.
30th of April, Andrey was interrogated in criminal case against local anti-fascist activists, and eventually released court pending. Case dates back to September of 2010, when a group of local Nazis, lead by Semen Murzin, claimed to local polcie that they had been beaten up by anti-fascists. Five anti-fascist were charged with "hooliganism", but eventually three of them have been requalified from suspects to witnesses.
Released their second album "Fellow Arcadia" - the Executive, which is close to our ideas. The album featured nine new songs performed with guitar accompaniment. Comrade Arkady before that for several years played in the infamous hardcore band, adhering to leftist ideas, but now switched to a different genre. Lyrics and poetry is quite acceptable level. The author has talent, and previous experience probably helps. On the subject of a socially-oriented lyrics.
Presentation of the new organization took place at a concert in support of Barnaul anarchists, which was held on April 16. Group ACHK-Irkutsk acted as the organizer of the show, and some of us have been involved and in the music program. Seven groups and projects from Irkutsk and Angarsk presented a wide palette of musical styles - from dub to noise.
For details and photos see the blog ACHK-Irkutsk
June 11th is the International Day of Solidarity with Marius Mason & All Long-Term Anarchist Prisoners. This action day has a long history, it was organized first time 20 years ago in 2004. In the first year, we managed to paint a graffiti to wall of one of the most guarded objects of Moscow,...
Anarchist group ANA Regensburg hosted my online-presentation on 16th of May 2024, in which I discussed tactics of anti-war activism in Russia, and reasons why the anti-war movement has not been able to make an impact to change the course of events yet. Cases of anarchists repressed for anti-war...