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On May 23, anarchist Ruslan Sidiki was sentenced to a record-breaking 29 years in prison. He received this sentence for two acts of sabotage against military infrastructure: blowing up a railway track and carrying out a drone attack on an airfield. Ruslan explained his actions as an attempt to hinder attacks on Ukraine.

As of the end of May, Alexander Snezhkov, a defendant in the “Chita anarchists’ case,” had spent more than 90 days in the SHIZO (penal isolation ward, hole), after which he was transferred to a PKT (cell-type facility) with even stricter detention conditions.

PKT (cell-type facility) is a special section within a correctional facility (prison within a penal colony), where inmates are sent as a disciplinary measure for severe violations of prison rules in general, strict, or special regime colonies.

Yesterday, May 23, Judge Oleg Shishov of the 2nd Western District Military Court, during an off-site session at the Ryazan Garrison Military Court, sentenced 37-year-old Ruslan Siddiqui to 29 years in a high-security penal colony, as reported by a Mediazona correspondent from the courtroom.

On May 1918-year-old anarchist Lyubov Lizunova was transferred from her previous location at the Tomsk Juvenile Correctional Facility (TVK-2) to a new location.

According to the support group, she is being moved to one of the colonies in Buryatia. Lyuba spent more than two and a half months in TVK-2 after a three-week transfer from Chita SIZO-1. During her time in Tomsk, she completed the 11th grade, passed her final exams, and received mostly top marks — nearly all A’s and a few B’s.

Rozhkov carried out the third known arson attack on a military enlistment office following the full-scale invasion of Ukraine by the Russian army. He committed the act on March 11, 2022, as a form of protest and a way to draw attention to the situation. In an interview Ivan Astashin conducted with Alexey in December 2022 — when he had managed to flee to Kyrgyzstan — the anarchist explained his motivation:

Tuesday May 13, a panel of judges from the 2nd Western District Military Court began substantive hearings in Ryazan in the case against anarchist Ruslan Sidiki, who is charged under "terrorism" articles for two attacks on military infrastructure

According to the message Anarchist Black Cross Moscow, he will turn 37 years old.

Vasily Kuksov was sentenced to 9 years in prison in the so-called Network Case, accused of participating in the activities of a "anarchist terrorist organization" and possession of weapons. He is expected to be released in October 2026.

Source: Anarchist Black Cross Moscow

Source: Anarchist Black Cross Moscow

This was revealed during session at the 2nd Western District Military Court in Moscow 9th of April, where Ruslan’s pre-trial detention was extended for another six months.The court also announced the date of the first substantive hearing — it will take place on April 15 at 11:00 AM, in the same court.

Source: Anarchist Black Cross Moscow

On April 10th, anarchist Ilya Shakursky celebrates his birthday. He turns 29, 7.5 of which he has already spent in prison. Ilya is one of the defendants in the “Network case”, in which the FSB fabricated an entire terrorist organization just to earn stars on their epaulets. In 2020, a Putin-controlled court sentenced Shakursky to 16 years in a high-security penal colony.

In 2018 Victor Filinkov was a 23-year old programmer and a left-wing activist. Suddenly he became the suspect of the “Network” case - young people from Penza, Moscow and other cities allegedly created a terrorist organization.

Source: Anarchist Black Cross Moscow

Andrey Chernov is an anarchist, antifascist, and vegan. Before his arrest, he lived in Penza. He participated in the Food Not Bombs, organized free markets, and took part in the No surrender anti-fascist mixed martial arts tournament.

Source: Anarchist Black Cross Moscow

On February 14, Lyubov Lizunova, a defendant in the Chita Anarchists' Case, was taken out of Pre-Trial Detention Center No. 1 in Chita in Russian Far East. The three-week transfer route passed through Irkutsk and Mariinsk in the Kemerovo region of Siberia. On March 2, Lyubov informed her parents that she had arrived at the juvenile correctional colony in Tomsk.

A Russian and Italian citizen, an electrician from [the Russian city of] Ryazan, an industrial tourist, a bike traveller, an anarchist and a partisan – all this can be said about 36-year-old Ruslan Sidiki. In the summer of 2023, he dispatched four drones with explosives to attack the Diaghilev military airfield near Ryazan, and in the autumn, he decided to act “from the ground” – damaging railway lines with two bombs and derailing 19 freight train wagons. Sidiki is currently awaiting trial in a Moscow pre-trial detention centre, with the prospect of a life sentence hanging over him.

Translation of the article into English was done by our volunteers.

Translation of the article into English was done by our volunteers.

At the end of March 2024, the mathematician and anarchist Azat Miftakhov was sentenced to four years of imprisonment in a criminal case for “justifying terrorism”. Miftakhov pleaded not guilty to all the charges against him. The case itself emerged after a prisoner, whom the anarchist considered a close friend in the colony, testified against the mathematician. The defence and Azat himself have repeatedly stated that the case is fabricated.

On April 25, 2024, the 1st District Military Court in a visiting session in Chita sentenced the antifascist Alexander Snezhkov to 6 years, and the antifascist Lyubov Lizunova to 3.5 years in prison. Snezhkov was found guilty under the article on vandalism motivated by political hostility because of a graffiti "Death to the regime". Both were convicted under articles on calls to extremism and terrorism. 

The Solidarity zone team learned that Rouslan Sidiki had been tortured after his detention almost as soon as the independent lawyer began work. However, it was important to obtain documentary evidence of the mutilation that was observed when he entered the SIZO (pre-trial detention centre). Now, some months later, his lawyer Igor Popovsky has now managed obtain that document.

For this year’s International Anarchist Prisoner Solidarity Week, Freedom interviewed the Anarchist Black Cross-Moscow to discuss their long history in Russia supporting imprisoned Russian anarchists, the challenges they face under Putin’s regime and their work during the war on Ukraine.

According to Solidarity Zone, the lawyer Igor Popovsky visited Ruslan Siddiqui in the Moscow detention centre SIZO-5 and received a confirmation from him that the report by TASS about the anarchist's desire to go to fight on the side of the Russian Federation was a lie.