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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.

On 4th August TASS reported that during interrogations Ruslan Sidiqui had expressed a desire to "go to the zone of the special military operation to serve in the Russian army". This report was widely disseminated in the media, including by the independent media. We suspected from the very beginning that the report was a lie. And day before yesterday Siddiqui confirmed this via his lawyer.

"I was very surprised to hear about my desire to join the Russian army," said Ruslan via his lawyer.

Ruslan Siddiqui has never expressed any desire to go and fight against Ukraine. He also never received any official offer to, "wash away his guilt with blood".

Ruslan reported to his lawyer the informal discussions that he had on this topic immediately after his arrest.

"All that I asked the investigator, once, was whether they call up people facing such a charge, and I have a cell-mate who is also charged under article 205 who asked the same question. When I was in [detention centre] SIZO-7 [in December 2023], my state-appointed lawyer asked me if I was prepared to go as a teacher or drone-operator, and I replied to him that this was a dubious proposition, and reminded him and the investigator that I had acted out of my ideological convictions, and sang them a couplet from the Ukrainian song:
Не хочемо ні слави ні заплати.
Заплата нам — це радість в боротьбі!
['I don't want glory or pay. Our pay is joy in struggle!']
To which the investigator replied to me that I would go far with such an attitude."

Ruslan concluded his message with the following: "Given everything I have said to them, I ruled out the possibility that I could take part in military actions against Ukraine."

To recap: TASS — is the Russian state media, and by its nature a propaganda organ of the Putin regime, that is currently waging an aggressive war against Ukraine. Just within our own work in revealing repression, Solidarity zone has caught TASS lying several times.

Ruslan Siddiqui is an anarchist for Ryazan who is charged with blowing up railway lines, drone attacks on the aerodrome Dyagilevo and also with preparations for another act of sabotage on the railway. Siddiqui is charged under the articles on "acts of terrorism", "studying with the purpose of carrying out terrorist activities" and also with the use of explosive devices. Taking the charges together, the anarchist is faced with 15 to 30 years or life imprisonment.

Ruslan does not consider his actions — the detonation of the railway line under a goods train or the drone attack on a military aerodrome — to be acts of terrorism. He notes that his aim was to harm military infrastructure. Siddiqui carried out his actions in order to prevent harm to people. This contradicts the formulation of the article on "acts of terrorism", one of whose key features is causing fear among the population.

• You can support Ruslan by writing letters (in Russian only)!

• Address for letters:
  Russia, 125130, Москва, ул. Выборгская, д. 20, СИЗО-5
  Siddiqui Ruslan Kasemovich, born 1988 (Сидики Руслан Касемович 1988 г. р.)

• You can write via PrisonMail.Online service: "Moscow" ⮕ "SIZO-5 Vodnik"

• How can I write letters to political prisoners in Russia?

Solidarity zone is providing support to Ruslan Siddiqui.

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