The FSB is expelling political activists from Russia

On the 29th of March the Federal Migration Service of Russia gave Finnish citizen Antti Rautiainen, a member of Autonomous Action, an order to leave the Russian Federation within 15 days. According to the order, Rautiainen is suspected of "making statements for the violent overthrow of the constitutional order." Migration authorities have commented, that such decisions are made according to orders from the FSB.

Rautiainen wants to appeal the decision with help of lawyers from the "Civic Action" NGO.

Antti Rautiainen is an activist in the anarchist movement, participant in the prisoner support group "Anarchist Black Cross", anti-militarist and conscientious objectors's groups, one of the editors of the journal "Avtonom." He has participated in the opposition protests between December 2011 and March 2012, and in many anarchist initiatives. He has been detained by authorities several times, but has never been given a misdemeanor or a felony sentence in Russia. Thus, the exile of Rautiainen is a purely political decision.

Antti Rautiainen has been living in Russia since 1999. Between 1999 and 2000 he studied in a student exchange program at the Moscow State University, and between 2000 and 2010 he studied at the Peoples Friendship University of Russia, first in the department of Physico-Mathematical and Natural sciences, and then in the Ph.D. Program of the department of information technologies. For the past two years Rautiainen has worked as an IT specialist.

The temporary residence permit of Rautiainen was annulled according to statute 7.1.1. of the Federal law of the Russian Federation "On the legal status of foreign citizens in th eRussian Federation", 25th of July 2002, N115-FZ.

This statute states that "A temporary residence permit is not given to a foreign citizen, and previously given permit is annulled, in the case that the foreign citizen 1) Is making statements for the violent overthrow of the fundamentals of the constitutional order of the Russian Federation, or is by other means endangering security of Russian Federation or citizens of the Russian Federation"

Personal account of Antti: http://avtonom.org/en/author_columns/exiled