Moscow

This time around there's both good news and bad news, so lets start with the good ones.

Maxim ”Hadad” Smolnikov released from remand in custody

We got in touch with several anarchist comrades to talk about the recent protests on the streets of different cities in Russia: looked into political events of 2020 and how they brought people to the situation with protests.

With the comrades we managed to clarify if Navalny is a nazi and the whole protest should be ignored by the anarchists or leftists. And of course we talked about anarchists and their participation in protest movement.

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On the morning of September 1st, 34-year-old anarchist Alexey ”Socrates” Sutuga died, due to severe head injuries, in the intensive care unit of the Sklifosovsky Institute. For more than a week, doctors fought for his life, but the injuries were too serious.

On 27th July, my friend Vladislav Barabanov took part in the rally for fair elections and permission of the independent candidates in Moscow. He was one of 1,500 detainees at this action and one of 13 people accused of criminal offense.

"Article 212 case " or "the Moscow case" is another example of lawlessness in Russia's everyday life. We wish to tell the whole world of people dear to us getting battered and imprisoned for their active citizenship.

In Moscow, at the end of August 10, plainclothes police officers arrested the anarchist Alexei Polikhovich on his way home from Russia’s largest opposition demonstration since 2011. A local Moscow court formally charged Alexei with “petty hooliganism” and sentenced him to 13 days in jail. The arrest stemmed from a combative and passionate speech Alexei gave to thousands in Moscow that day.

On February 1, 2019, officers of the FSB, the Russian state security apparatus descended from the KGB, arrested a dozen people in the latest wave of their campaign of repression against accused anarchists throughout the country. After brutally torturing them over the following 24 hours in order to force them to agree to incriminating statements, they released 11 of them.

March 18 – act in solidarity with Russian anarchists!

Moscow Anarchist Black Cross released the review of repression of anarchists by Russian state in 2017 and early 2018. During this period, the authorities continue to frame and persecute the Russian comrades. Anarchists are also a subject of repressions in prisons. Here is the extract of recently published list of repression in Russia.

Yelena Gorban and Alexei Kobaidze, suspects in the vandalism case (Russian Criminal Code Article 214) opened after a protest outside a United Russia party office on January 31, have been sent to Temporary Detention Facility No. 1 (Petrovka) in Moscow, as reported to OVD Info by their defense lawyers, Svetlana Sidorkina and Maxim Pashkov.

A Statement by the Journalists’ and Media Workers’ Union

In the early hours of January 31st, Russian security services stormed the apartment of @Pavel Nikulin, a co-chair of the Journalists' and Media Workers' Union. We can assume that Pavel’s apartment was searched in connection with an article he wrote for the New Times magazine in March 2017. The article, titled “From Kaluga With Jihad," was removed from the magazine's website after a court found it was "publicly justifying terrorism."

The Russian authorities continue to prosecute and jail our comrades. In the summer and fall of 2016, demonstrations of solidarity with the convicts were held all across the globe. The anarchists are furthermore suffering repressions in jails, but keep the spirit up. If you think that we have missed something important in our article or are aware of other repressions, feel free tocontact us at abc-msk@riseup.net  

Free at last  

Alexei Gaskarov: Many People Ask Whether I Am Going to Take up Politics. But What Politics Are There Nowadays?

Olesya Gerasimenko
Snob
November 1, 2016

Elena Nadezhkina took part in different animal defence-, eco- and social actions, international solidarity actions and many others. Until 2009 she volunteered for several years: rescued dogs and cats and found homes for them.  Moreover, Elena participated in ecological projects: campaign against deforestation, campaign for political prisoners of the Khimki forest defence and other social actions.

Between 1st and 10th of July, international days of solidarity for political prisoners of Putin's police state took place in 22 cities of 10 different countries.

Dmitry Buchenkov, PhD in political sciences, antifascist, anarchist and boxing coach, has been under arrest for already more than three months in “Vodnik” remand prison. Investigators suspect him of participating in the riots of May 6, 2012 at Bolotnaya Square in Moscow. The absurdity of the accusation against Dmitry Buchenkov is quite evident: he had been in Nizhny Novgorod on that day, more than 300 km away from Moscow, but he was arrested anyway despite the alibi.

How do you spend your day in prison?

A well-known antifascist and anarchist Dmitry Buchenkov, PhD in political science, was arrested in Moscow in December 2015. He is suspected of participating in the riots of May 6, 2012. More than 400 persons were arrested as a result of a mass protest action against Putin’s politics that took place on May 6, 2012 in Moscow. Dmitry was not in Moscow on that day, he was in Nizhny Novgorod, more than 300 km away from Moscow.

At the beginning of December, Dmitry Buchenkov became the latest person in Russia’s ‘Bolotnaya Case’, a series of investigations and trials into Russia’s opposition now in its fourth year.

Russian authorities have upped the ante in their pressure on anarchists from “Autonomous Action” movement as of late – this includes a new prisoner charged with the Bolotnaya Square case, Dmitry Buchenkov,

"OVD-INFO" (russian NGO which observes police repressions) has found photos of Bolotnaya Square on May 6, 2012. In the center the person in black "which in Investigative committee (Russian analog of FBI) is considered to be Dmitry Buchenkov". According to Buchenkov's companions, it is obviouslu another person. Any person who has seen Dmitry Buchenkov at least once, would understand that there is different person on this photo.

Human rights activists found the new person involved in "Bolotnaya Square case" who was looked for four days by relatives and the lawyer. I remember how three years ago we counted arrested of "bolotnik": the first, the second, thirteenth, eighteenth. Then some of arrested were released — it appeared that they have an alibi and on Bolotnaya Square on May 6 they weren't.