Solidarity zone

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.

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.

The anarchist Ruslan Siddiqui is accused of attacking the Dyagilevo military aerodrome, using quadcopters, and of damaging railway lines (in Ryazan region) that were used to transport military equipment and fuel to the Russian army in Ukraine.

Anti-War Human Rights Initiative Solidarity zone launching a fundraiser to pay for the next six months’ work by Ruslan’s lawyer. For six months’ legal work we need to raise €4290.

On May 25 we invite you to the 'Solidarity zone' event in Leipzig (13.00, gallery Jochen Hempel, Spinnereistraße 7) in support of political prisoners in Russia. It will be held in the framework of the exhibition 'freedom is a verb' by Alla Gutnikova.

Facebook event

Yuri Mikheev is an anti-fascist from Lobnya, just outside Moscow. On 10 November 2023, he and a friend were detained on the territory of a military unit in the Moscow region. The FSB accused the young men of planning to set fire to military equipment. A case was initiated under criminal articles regarding "preparation for sabotage". Yura faces up to 10 years.

Late last year, opposition politician Alexei Navalny, who had been sentenced to 19 years in prison for a number of trumped-up cases, was sent to a special regime penal colony in the settlement of Kharp in the Far North, one of the most hard-to-reach colonies. This region colonies are famous for its harsh regime and torture of prisoners.

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.

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.

On November 25 and 26, the Anarchist Book Fair is taking place in Amsterdam (Plantage Doklaan 8-12); in addition to books, various horizontal groups will give presentations and workshops on these days.

Anti-War Human Rights Initiative Solidarity zone will take a table at the fair, where you can buy T-shirts, scarves, posters, badges and other merch.

July 28th the First Eastern Regional Court in Khabarovsk has handed down its sentence in the case of the burning of the National Guard building in Komsomolsk on the Amur. The 51-year old taxi-driver Vladimir Zolotarev was found guilty of committing an "act of terrorism", even though no-one was harmed in the fire.

Ivan Kudryashov is an anti-war activist who made a street art piece in the center of Tver with the text “Fuck the War.”​ ​In September 2022, he was detained by the Federal Security Service. FSB officers planted Molotov cocktails in Ivan’s apartment and tortured the activist in an attempt to pressurize him to confess to preparing the arson of a military enlistment office.

At the end of May, anarchist Alexey Rozhkov was illegally extradited from Kyrgyzstan to Russia. Without observing the procedures under Kyrgyz law and international norms, officers from the Kyrgyz State Committee for National Security kidnapped Alexey and took him to the Russian Federation, where he was detained by FSB officers. The former threatened Alexei with torture, and the FSB put those threats into action — the young man told us that he had been tasered.

On 31 May the Southern District Military Court in Rostov-on-Don sentenced Igor Paskar to eight-and-a-half years’ imprisonment on charges of “vandalism” and “terrorism”. He was found guilty of burning a Z-banner [a pro-war symbol] and the symbolic firebombing of the FSB [Federal Security Service] building in Krasnodar. The day before his sentencing, Igor gave his final statement in court. Here is a translation of his speech:

On May 29, anti-war activist Alexey Rozhkov, who had fled from Russia to Kyrgyzstan, was extending his temporary registration in his host country. And the very next day, early in the morning, security forces broke into his home. On June 7, lawyer Kamil Isabekov visited Alexey Rozhkov in a temporary detention center in the suburbs of Yekaterinburg (the largest city in the Urals) to find out the circumstances of his transfer to Russia.  Anti-war human rights initiative Solidarity Zone wrote about it.

18-year-old Mikhail Lazakovich from Tver, was detained on May 9 on suspicion of setting fire to a military recruitment center in Likhoslavl, 50 km from Tver. On the advice of his appointed lawyer, the young man did not deny his involvement in the arson. However, instead of the promised mitigation of punishment, the charge was reclassified from "attempted damage to property" to "an act of terrorism". 

After being charged under the "terrorist" article (Part 1 of Article 205 of the Russian Criminal Code), Mikhail refused to testify and plead guilty of terrorism.

Kirill Butylin carried out the first known arson attack on a military enlistment office following the beginning of the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine. On 28th of  February 2022 the young man threw Molotov cocktails at the enlistment office in the town of Lukhovitsa in the Moscow region.