News

1 of May in Nizhny Novgorod became a real show-off of police brutality.
 At 10 a.m. group of antifa were arrested by police officers at the Minin's square, took to the police division and called in question by members of Antiextremism Department. One of the members of Anti-extremism Department told the detained, that he don't give a damn for his rights and he's ready to wipe his ass with constitution. Detained were charged with unsanctioned action. But no action was there, those guys were going to take part in legal demonstration, which traditionally is held by the Left on Minin's square at 1 of May.
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Friday 26th of April, a police station was attacked with Molotov cocktails in Butovo in Moscow southside.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kczhQZs6i4w

Lengthy communique available at http://blackblocg.blogspot.com/2010/04/blog-post.html
 

In evening of 14th of April officers of Center of Counteraction Against Extremism (“Center E”) in Tyumen region searched house and arrested for 48 hours local anarchist and member of Autonomous Action Andrey Kutuzov. According to friends of Andrey, pretext of the arrest was a leaflet, which Center E officers considered “extremist”. Friends of Andrey say that leaflet was planted during the search. Andrey Kutuzov and Rustam Fahretdninov were arrested in January of 2009 for “political vandalism”, eventually criminal case against them was closed due to “lack of proof”. This history resulted a criminal case against officers of “Center E”, who back then beat up one of the arrested. 
 

Recently we learned, that imprisoned anti-fascist Andrey Mergenyov was paroled. He was in prison since june 2007 after a fight with a Nazi in Saratov. Our congratulations for Andrey, but remember that there are still other prisoners in need of our support. 

For the occasion, please also change address of Aleksey Bychin, doing 5 years for a fight with Nazi who is also a police officer, in your prisoner lists as he has been moved to another subsection in the prison colony - letters sent to previous address will reach him as well, but with a substantial delay:

They don't want to talk about Afghanistan. In Russia people try to forget about events, that happened between 1979-1989, to forget how much people was killed and how much of them became disabled, how much soldiers blindly fought for the "great nothing" and how much of them had no choice. We recall those memories. In Afghanistan there are still military operations, but now due to NATO's forces. It's called as "control over sore points of Near East".

Andrei Mergenyov is imprisoned in Saratov after a fight with a Nazi in June 2007. Recently we received a following letter from him, and we translated it just to remind you about one of the less known Russian anti-fascist prisoners.

Address of Andrey (note that this is a new address!): 

Andrey Mergenyov

Saratovskaya oblast G. Engels,

FBU IK-13

3 otryad 413116

You may also write address in cyrillic: 
Мергеневу А.К.

Short film Actions vs. repressions gives a voice to Russian anti-authoritarian activists from Autonomous Action of St. Petersburg and Ufa, Anarchist Black Cross of Moscow and St. Petersburg and Vsevolod Ostapov, who got brutalised by Police in April of 2007 and whose case became a rallying cry for a significiant campaign against police brutality in Moscow during last two years.

35 year-old comrade Lambros Foundas was murdered by cops on Wednesday morning in the suburb of Dafni (south Athens).

The police claims that he was a “terrorist” and that he was shot while trying to steal a car, and that was carrying firearms. Fountas was one of the over 500 anarchists arrested at the Polytechnic riots of 1995, in Athens.

Catalan anarchist prisoner Amadeu Casellas Ramon was released from prison at midday on Tuesday, 9 March!!!

The director of the penitentiary center at Girona (Catalunya, Spanish State) finally considered all the complaints and petitions submitted by Casellas' lawyers and concluded that Casellas had been imprisoned for 8 years too long, and ordered his immediate release.

Currently there is a fabricated case against 3 antifascists going on Izhevsk, we raised funds for this in autumn: http://www.avtonom.org/old/index.php?nid=2530

During court proceedings, defence presented as a proof a phone conversation which took place 3rd of March between one of the accused anti-fascists (Mark Kolbin) and one of the alleged Nazi victims (Andrey Agafonov).

A British soldier who refused to return to duty in Afghanistan and went on to speak at anti-war rallies was sentenced to nine months' detention in a military prison on 5th of March. Support group in London is going to appeal, but it's not known whether that can change the situation. Though, people from all over the world already could show, how much solidarity can be effective, organised on 4th and 5th of March actions in support of Joe  in UK, Italy, USA, Germany, Greece, Russia and earlier, in January, also in New Zealand and Poland. Thanks to those people, charge of desertion was dropped and instead of 10 years detention in prison Joe was sentenced to 9 months.

In the modern world every single life is considered to be the highest value but wars are not on the decrease, people keep on dying and staying crippled, keep on running away from the places they were born because their homeland has turned to ruins. And those, who try to protest against war have arraignment, followed by prison sentence. We going to take issue with that! We support all soldiers-antimilitarists, who refuse to take part in military action!
Today, 4th of March, near the British Embassy was organised a picket in support of lance corporal Joe Glenton, one of those, who could say, what millions of people all over the world want to say. All those people want the same thing - to stop senseless wars and murders.

It is an open secret that the newly created centers for counteraction of extremism in Russia often become the tool of repression and work against civil liberties and initiatives. Doing their work the "fighters against extremism" don't despise to break the law brutally. In Petrozavodsk 3 young people became the victims of the police outrage. They were being pressed and tortured and now the case is being fabricated.

On 5 March UK refusenik Joe Glenton faces court martial and possibly two years in jail for going AWOL (absent without leave). According to the UK Ministry of Defence (MoD), soldiers have gone on the run from their posts on more than 17,000 occasions since 2003.

WHY PICK ON JOE GLENTON? Because Joe has spoken publicly about his refusal to take part in the war and occupation of Afghanistan.   The steady drumbeat of attacks on civilians continues:  On 21 February, 33 civilians including women and children were killed in Uruzgan province in a NATO airstrike on a convoy of vehicles. When will the killing end?

On February 23 in Russia, Ukraine, Belarus and several other former republics of the Soviet Union the holiday "Defender of the Motherland Day" is celebrated. As the name suggests, the holiday is celebrated by people who are serving or were serving in the Russian Armed Forces. This holiday is always full of patriotism and prevailing authorities do their best to fill people's heads with shit, making them to be ashamed of unwilingness of military service and to respect those who served in the armed forces, if not love it.

We have posted on the ridiculous case of Vsevolod “Seva” Ostapov on two previous occasions. Yesterday, February 17, the whole ugly story came to a (we hope, temporary) conclusion in a Moscow court. Below, you’ll find translations of some of the coverage in the non-state-controlled press.

Freedom of speech is general right, which is guaranteed by the State, but no one guaranties the freedom after you would say something. Heightened attention of the State locked on "thoughtcrimes" and rumbles of opposition of all kinds leads us to think... They try to shut mouth of everyone, who pretend to tell, what he thinks. And to tell this without looking back, but aloud and clear - for everybody.

A British soldier who refused to return to duty in Afghanistan and subsequently spoke at anti-war rallies today admitted going absent without leave after a more serious charge of desertion was dropped.

During a brief military court hearing, Lance Corporal Joe Glenton admitted going awol between June 2007 and June 2009.

On 6th January 2010 the police arrested 23 people in Ankara (Turkey) by using brutal force. The arrests occurred during a demonstration and press conference for the immediate release of the imprisoned milit

Year and two days ago, human rights lawyer Stanislav Markelov and anarchist journalist of Novaya Gazeta, Anastasia Baburova were shot in cold blood in center of Moscow.

Sad anniversary two days ago, 19th of January, became biggest manifestation of solidarity with Russian anti-fascists ever – actions were organised in more than 30 cities in Russia and around the world.