In Father Frost against Putin -festival, Helsinki 13th of January 2023 7:30 at Oranssi (Kaasutehtaankatu 1, building 11).
We will screen the movie about participants of anti-fascist and anarchist groups during the anti-Putin protests of 2011-2012.
Nikita is an anti-fascist from Surgut, a straight-A student and a vegetarian, very intelligent and always faithful to principles. Nick dreams of becoming a surgeon, and studied at Surgut University, but dropped out because of the inability of the university to organize the educational process, because of bureaucratic delays and imperfections of the education system, which he could not put up with. He studied a thousand books on physiology, history, politics, and art. Nick initiated the creation of a public libertarian library, his first non-profit educational project.
Festival program is now published.
Father Frost against Putin -festival was organised first time 10 years ago. From 2014 to 2020 festival was organised seven times, and Russian grassroots organisations told about their activities and networked between each other.
The anarchist Ruslan Siddiqui is accused of causing an explosion, on a railway used to transport military equipment and fuel to the Russian army in Ukraine. The result was the derailment of 19 carriages of a goods train in the Ryazan region. There were no casualties, although the driver’s assistant sustained non-serious injuries. Russian Railways assessed the damage at €300.000. Ruslan has been charged with committing a terrorist act, and possession of explosive material.
Danil is a convinced anti-fascist from Yekaterinburg, a loving husband and devoted friend, the soul of any company. He is one of the best veterinarians in Yekaterinburg, specializing as an orthopedic surgeon. Before his arrest, he worked in two veterinary clinics. Being a leading specialist in veterinary surgery, he constantly attended scientific conferences, improved his qualifications in Moscow and St. Petersburg, and mastered modern technologies in surgery and endoscopy. Danil trained veterinary specialists in Surgut.
Anarchist Ruslan Siddiqui, accused of rail line disruption and drone attack on a military airport in Ryazan Oblast, was transferred from SIZO “Kapotnya” at the outskirts of Moscow to “Matrosskaya Tishina”. As the antiwar human rights initiative “Solidarity zone” writes, Siddiqui himself informed a friend in a letter about the transfer.
New address for letters and parcels:
Recently, the defendants in the «Tyumen case» have received the final version of the charges. According to the support group, in letters to relatives and friends they write that the investigation committee has added two further offenses to the «terrorism» charge:
«the illicit manufacture of explosives as part of an organized criminal group» (part 3 of article 223.1 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation), which envisages between fifteen and twenty years of deprivation of liberty
Yura is an antifascist and opponent of authoritarianism from Yekaterinburg, detained on August 31, 2022.
He is engaged in Thai boxing and studies computer technologies of graphic design. Yura is a talented freelance designer, recently he has been doing 3D modeling and drawing models for games and cartoons.
Help the defendants of the "Tyumen case" in their fight for freedom!
Firefund.net calls everyone to support the crowdfunding to pay the lawyers for the defendants in the "Tyumen case". Deadline is 1th of January 2024.
At the end of November, the anarchist Ruslan Siddiqui was arrested on suspicion of organising the derailment of a goods train in Ryazan province. On 2 December, the Dorogomilovsky district court in Moscow sent Ruslan to pre-trial detention.
Acts of railway sabotage are now quite common in Russia. Partisans use these to block the delivery of military supplies to the armed forces operating on Ukrainian territory.
Deniz is an anti-fascist from Tyumen and was detained on August 30, 2022, with his friend Kirill Brik. (Kirill Brik signed a pre-trial agreement with the investigation, so the support team does not pay for his lawyer's services).
We share translation of an open letter written by defendant of the "Tyumen case" Danil Chertykov in detention. He talks about the difficulties he had to face in SIZO-1 of Tyumen and compared the penal system to the digestive system. The letter was translated specifically for our website.
In September, Yura Neznamov had to fight for his health and medical care. A neoplasm appeared on his leg. Later it turned out to be a small benign tumor. All complaints about his health were ignored by the doctors of SIZO-1 in Tyumen (where the defendants in the "Tyumen case" are kept). The lawyer wrote a large number of complaints and obtained medical care for Yura.
Drawing by Nikita Oleynik
Six anarchists from Russia have been held in pre-trial detention for a year on spurious charges of creating a "terrorist community". According to Russian law, our comrades face a total of 5 to 15 years of imprisonment for the charged articles, and 15 to 30 years of life imprisonment for organizing or leading a "terrorist community". The main proof of guilt is a confession given under torture.
Firefund calls everyone to support the crowdfunding to pay the lawyers for the defendants in the "Tyumen case". The guys have been in pre-trial detention for more than a year and they will face trials on the merits of the case. Families and relatives will have to pay for the participation of lawyers in these sessions and they will not be able to cope without help!
In night between 16th and 17th of October in Bishkek, according to DOXA, unknown people kidnapped activist of Left Bloc, anarchist Lev Skoryakin. Lawyers do not know about his whereabouts. In Russia, Skoryakin is accused of ”hooliganism with weapons”, due to action against a FSB office in the South-West of Moscow with another activist of the Left Bloc Ruslan Abasov. Skoryakin and Abasov were holding banners and burning flares at the office.
Because Kirill Brik, a defendant of the Tyumen case, signed a pre-trial agreement, Anarchist Black Cross of Moscow is no longer supporting him anymore. In some cases we do support prisoners who give testimonies against themselves, but we do not support prisoners that are testifying against others.
Today, September 9, 2023, Dmitry Petrov would have turned 34 years old. On the website of his memory leshy.info you can read and listen to Dima’s biography, his interviews and lectures, his articles and articles about him. There are links to books he translated or edited, to projects in which he participated. The memorial website consists of sections in Russian, English and Ukrainian.
On 4 September 2023, former Moscow State University graduate student and political prisoner Azat Miftakhov was released from penal colony. On the same day Federal Security Service (FSB) has charged Miftakhov in a criminal case for «justifying terrorism». According to FSB, Azat discussed with other prisoners the war in Ukraine and the actions of the anarchist Mikhail Zhlobitsky, who caused an explosion in the FSB building and died in 2018.
At the end of each August, anarchists and anti-authoritarian activists from around the world take part in the International Week of Solidarity with Anarchist Prisoners.
We call you to support political prisoners in Russia and Belarus by letters!
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...