Putin’s War on the Left (International Solidarity Appeal)

socialistworker.org

Putin’s ongoing war on the left
February 25, 2013

Last May, before the inauguration of Vladimir Putin for yet another term as Russia’s president, tens of thousands of people demonstrated in Moscow in protest against the fraudulent election that gave Putin another victory two months before. Police descended on the peaceful demonstration and attacked protests, arresting 400 people.

Since then, Putin’s dictatorial regime has used the May 6 demonstration as a bogeyman to accuse various left-wing leaders of wanting to foment violence — when those truly bent on violence were his own security forces. In this statement, left-wing organizations in Russia — the Russian Socialist Movement, the Left Front and the Russian Anarchists — appeal for international solidarity against the government’s violence and repression.

Demonstrators in the streets of Moscow on May 6 (Sergey Kukota)

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TWO MONTHS ago, we, representatives of the Russian left, asked for your solidarity in the face of the coming wave of political repressions in Russia.

Alas, today, this call is even more urgent than before. It is no longer an exaggeration to compare the political trials taking place right now to the prosecution of Russian populists in the late 19th century. The number of possible convictions resulting from the so-called “riots” of May 6, 2012 has steadily climbed over 20, and the majority of the detainees have already spent many months in jail awaiting trial.

Their names are Vladimir Akimenkov, Oleg Arkhipenkov, Andrei Barabanov, Fyodor Bakhov, Yaroslav Belousov, Alexandra Dukhanina, Stepan Zimin, Ilya Gushchin, Nikolai Kavkazsky, Alexander Kamensky, Leonid Kovyazin, Mikhail Kosenko, Sergei Krivov, Konstantin Lebedev, Maxim Luzyanin, Denis Lutskevich, Alexei Polikhovich, Leonid Razvozzhayev, and Artem Savelov.

The aim of the prosecution is self-evident: to break the will for political struggle of those unhappy with the current political regime and to systematically demolish the existing political opposition, a significant portion of which is situated on the political left.

The Investigative Committee — a structure accountable only to President Putin — has constructed the case as a wide-ranging conspiracy, stretching from rank-and-file street protesters to established politicians. Thus, on January 10, 2013, the Committee merged two trials: the May 6th “riots” (with 19 detainees, two people under instructions not to leave, and 10 hiding outside of Russia) and the “organizing of unrest” with which our comrades Konstantin Lebedev, Leonid Razvozzhayev and Sergei Udaltsov have been charged.

THE LIST of detainees continues to grow. On February 7, 24-year-old Ilya Gushchin was arrested and accused of using violence against a policeman during the May 6th “riots.” A little earlier, on January 17, while facing similar charges and imminent deportation from the Netherlands back to Russia, Alexander Dolmatov took his own life.

On February 9, Sergei Udaltsov’s status changed from instructions not to leave to house arrest. This means that his channels of communication with the outside world have been cut off, and that even the tiniest infraction will land him in jail.

In addition, the prosecution and the judges, guided by the Kremlin, keep on placing pressure on the detainees, further risking their health and lives.

Thus, for example, the eyesight of 25-year-old Vladimir Akimenkov has continued to worsen since his arrest on June 10, 2012. Akimenkov, a Left Front activist, suffers from congenital impaired eyesight, which has deteriorated in prison conditions and may soon turn into a permanent loss of vision. Akimenkov’s lawyer, human rights activists and over 3,000 petitioners have asked the authorities to release him. However, the prosecution and the courts have remained firm and extended Akimenkov’s arrest until May 6, 2013.

Another of the accused, 37-year-old Mikhail Kosenko, has suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder since his military service. Instead of granting him access to medication or releasing him, the court is preparing to send him to “forced treatment” in a prison hospital.

Leonid Razvozzhayev, 40, a coordinator of the Left Front, was abducted from Ukrainian soil by unknown parties and delivered to Moscow. After the abduction, a confession appears to have been extorted from Razvozzhayev under threat of torture and harm to his family. Once in prison, he renounced his “confessions,” but his words are still being actively used against others. Currently, Razvozzhayev has been transferred to the Siberian city of Irkutsk, where his freedom to communicate with relatives and lawyers is severely limited.

The trial will most likely begin in earnest in March. The prosecutor will claim the existence of a massive anti-state conspiracy in which the accused will be said to have played various roles. We have little doubt that this trial will be biased and unjust. Unless fought against, its probable outcome will be the broken lives of dozens of people (the charges carry imprisonment up to eight years), conspiratorial hysterics in the state-run media, and a carte blanche for new repression.

Your solidarity now is crucial for us. On the eve of this shameful trial, from February 28 to March 3 we ask you to stage protests in front of any consulates of the Russian Federation in your countries, to disseminate information about the political trials and to urge your government and relevant NGOs to act. Please send reports on solidarity action and any other information or questions to RussiaSolidarity@gmail.com.

The Russian Socialist Movement
The Left Front
Russian Anarchists

International Days of Solidarity against Political Repression in Russia

A Call for International Days of Solidarity against Political Repression in Russia, November 29—December 2, 2012

An appeal from Russian leftists to their comrades in the struggle

Today we, members of Russian leftist organizations, appeal to our comrades all over the world for solidarity. This appeal and your response to it are vital to us. We are now facing not just another instance of innocent people sentenced by the punitive Russian “justice” system or another human life wrecked by the state. The authorities have launched a crackdown without precedent in Russia’s recent history, a campaign whose goal is to extinguish the left as an organized political force. The recent arrests, threats, beatings, aggressive media attacks and moves towards declaring leftist groups illegal all point to a new general strategy on the part of the authorities, a strategy much crueler and much less predictable than what we have seen in recent years.

The massive protest movement that began in December 2011 radically changed the atmosphere of political and social passivity established during the Putin years. Tens of thousands of young and middle-aged people, office workers and state employees, took to the streets and demanded change. On December 10 and 24, 2011, and, later, on February 4, 2012, Moscow, Petersburg and other major Russian cities were the sites of massive rallies, demonstrating that a significant part of society had undergone a new level of politicization. The “managed democracy” model crafted by the ruling elite over many years went bankrupt in a matter of days. Political trickery stopped working when confronted by real grassroots politics. The movement, whose demands were initially limited to “honest elections,” quickly grew into a protest against the entire political system.

After the elections of March 4, 2012, during which Vladimir Putin, using a combination of massive administrative pressure on voters, massive vote rigging and mendacious populist rhetoric, secured another term for himself, many thought that the potential for protest mobilization had been exhausted. The naïve hopes of the thousands of opposition volunteers who served as election observers in order to put an end to voter fraud, were crushed.

The next demonstration, in whose success few believed, was scheduled for downtown Moscow on May 6, 2012, the day before Putin’s inauguration. On this day, however, despite the skeptical predictions, more than 60,000 people showed up for an opposition march and rally. When the march approached the square where the rally was to take place, the police organized a massive provocation, blocking the marchers’ path to the square. All those who attempted to circumvent the police cordon were subjected to beatings and arrests. The unprecedented police violence produced resistance on the part of some protesters, who resisted arrests and refused to leave the square until everyone had been freed. The confrontation on May 6 lasted several hours. In the end, around 650 people were arrested, some of them spending the night in jail.

The next day, Putin’s motorcade traveled to his inauguration through an empty Moscow. Along with the protesters, the police had cleared the city center of all pedestrians. The new protest movement had demonstrated its power and a new degree of radicalization. The events of May 6 gave rise to the Russian Occupy movement, which brought thousands of young people to the center of Moscow and held its ground until the end of May. Leftist groups, who until then had been peripheral to the protest movement’s established liberal spokespeople, were progressively playing a larger role.

Those events were a signal to the authorities: the movement had gone beyond the permissible, the elections were over, and it was time to show their teeth. Almost immediately, a criminal investigation was launched into the “riot,” and on May 27, the first arrest took place. 18-year-old anarchist Alexandra Dukhanina was accused of involvement in rioting and engaging in violence against police officers. The arrests continued over the next few days. The accused included both seasoned political activists (mainly leftists) and ordinary people for whom the May 6 demonstrations were their first experience of street politics.

Nineteen people have so far been accused of involvement in those “disturbances.” Twelve of them are now being held in pre-trial detention facilities. Here are some of their stories:

⁃ Vladimir Akimenkov, 25, communist and Left Front activist. Arrested on June 10, 2012, he will be in pre-trial detention until March 6, 2013. Akimenkov was born with poor eyesight, which has deteriorated even further while he has been in jail. His most recent examination showed he has 10% vision in one eye, and 20% in the other. This, however, was not a sufficient grounds for the court to substitute house arrest for detention. At Akimenkov’s last court hearing, the judge cynically commented that only total blindness would make him reconsider his decision.

⁃ Mikhail Kosenko, 36, no political affiliation, arrested on June 8. Kosenko, who suffers from psychological disorders, also asked that he be placed under house arrest rather in pre-trial detention. However, the court has declared him a “danger to society” and plans to force him to undergo psychiatric treatment.

⁃ Stepan Zimin, 20, anarchist and anti-fascist, arrested on June 8 and placed in pre-trial detention until March 6, 2013, after which date his arrest can be extended. Zimin supports his single mother, yet once again the court did not consider this sufficient grounds to release him on his own recognizance.

⁃ Nikolai Kavkazsky, 26, socialist, human rights activist and LGBT activist. Detained on July 25.

Investigators have no clear evidence proving the guilt of any of these detainees. Nevertheless, they remain in jail and new suspects steadily join their ranks. Thus, the latest suspect in the May 6 case, 51-year-old liberal activist and scholar Sergei Krivov, was arrested quite recently, on October 18. There is every indication he will not be the last.

If the arrests of almost twenty ordinary protesters were intended to inspire fear in the protest movement, then the hunt for the “organizers of mass disturbances” is meant to strike at its acknowledged leaders. According to the investigation, the so-called riot was the result of a conspiracy, and all the arrestees had been given special assignments. This shows that we are dealing not only with a series of arrests, but with preparations for a large-scale political trial against the opposition.

On October 5, NTV, one of Russia’s major television channels, aired an “investigative documentary” that leveled fantastical charges against the opposition and in particular, against the most famous member of the left, Sergei Udaltsov. This Goebbelsian propaganda mash-up informed viewers of Udaltsov’s alleged ties with foreign intelligence, and the activities of the Left Front that he heads were declared a plot by foreign enemies of the state. By way of decisive proof, the broadcast included a recording of an alleged meeting involving Sergei Udaltsov, Left Front activist Leonid Razvozzhayev, Russian Socialist Movement member Konstantin Lebedev, and Givi Targamadze, one of the closest advisors to the president of Georgia. In particular, the conversation includes talk of money delivered by the Georgians for “destabilizing” Russia.

Despite the fact that the faces in the recording are practically indiscernible and the sound has clearly been edited and added separately to the video, within a mere two days the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation Prosecutor General’s Office (the state law enforcement agency playing the lead role in organizing the current crackdown) used it to launch a criminal case. On October 17, Konstantin Lebedev was arrested and Sergei Udaltsov released after interrogation, having signed a pledge not to travel beyond the Moscow city limits. On October 19, a third suspect in the new case, Left Front activist Leonid Razvozzhayev, attempted to apply for refugee status in the Kyiv offices of the UNHCR. As soon as he stepped outside the building, persons unknown violently forced him into a vehicle and illegally transported him across the Ukrainian border onto Russian territory. At an undisclosed location in Russia he was subjected to torture and threats (including regarding the safety of his family) and forced to sign a “voluntary confession.” In this statement, Razvozzhayev confessed to ties with foreign intelligence and to preparations for an armed insurgency, in which Konstantin Lebedev and Sergei Udaltsov were also involved. Razvozzhayev was then taken to Moscow and jailed as as an accused suspect. Razvozzhayev has subsequently asserted in meetings with human rights activists that he disavows this testimony, which was obtained under duress. However, police investigators have every intention of using it. We know of the existence of “Razvozzhayev’s list,” a list beaten out of him by torture: it contains the names of people who will soon also become targets of persecution.

The scope of the crackdown is steadily growing. The Investigative Committee recently announced an inquiry into Sergei Udaltsov’s organization, the Left Front, which may well result in its being banned as an “extremist” organization. Pressure against the anti-fascist movement is likewise building. Well-known anti-fascist activists Alexey Sutuga, Alexey Olesinov, Igor Kharchenko, Irina Lipskaya and Alen Volikov have been detained on fabricated charges and are being held in police custody in Moscow. Socialist and anti-fascist Filipp Dolbunov has been interrogated and threatened on several occasions.

It is hardly accidental that most victims of this unprecedented wave of repression are involved in the leftist movement. On the eve of the introduction of austerity measures, curtailment of labor rights and pension reforms in Russia, the Putin-Medvedev administration is most afraid of an alliance between the existing democratic movement and possible social protest. Today’s wave of repressions is the most important test for Russia’s new protest movement: either we hold strong or a new period of mass apathy and fear awaits us. It is precisely for this reason, faced with unprecedented political pressure, that the solidarity of our comrades in Europe and the entire world is so crucial.

We appeal to you to organize Days of Solidarity against Political Repression from November 29 to December 2 outside the Russian Federation embassy or any other Russian government misson in your countries, demanding the immediate release of those who have been illegally arrested and termination of the shameful criminal cases and preparations for new “Moscow trials” based on torture and fabrications. We also ask that you use the specific names and details we have provided in this appeal in your own protests and demands. This is crucial for every person now behind bars.

Please send your reports on solidarity actions and any other information or questions to the following email address: solidarityaction2012@gmail.com

Solidarity is our only weapon! United, we will never be defeated!

Russian Socialist Movement, Autonomous Action, Left Front

*Editor’s Note. Originally published in Russian here, and in English here. The original English translation has been edited slightly to make it more readable and accurate.

Left Front Leader Sergei Udaltsov Sentenced to 10 More Days in Jail

Udaltsov’s release has become one of the main tasks of the moment. This is not just a matter of countering repression and judicial fraud. Today, when we stood in front of the courthouse, whose front door was rudely shut in the lawyer’s face, and “witnesses,” their faces covered, were led into the courthouse surrounded by riot police specially brought in for the occasion, the authorities once again vividly and defiantly demonstrated the political boundaries of protest.

It is they, the people who give orders to Judge Borovkova, who are deciding who will lead the movement for democracy and fair elections (a movement that has already won over nearly everyone, including Alexei Kudrin and Vladislav Surkov) and who will die in prison, deprived of the elementary right to a fair trial.

Taking to the streets on December 29 and demanding the immediate release of Udaltsov is just as (if not more) important than it was to take to the streets on the 10th and 24th. This is a test for all of us: whether we are honest with ourselves and consistent when we confront the freaks in power.

— Ilya Budraitskis

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abcnews.go.com

Russia Opposition Activist to Be Held 10 More Days
MOSCOW December 25, 2011 (AP)

A prominent Russian opposition activist had barely half an hour of freedom Sunday before being sentenced to 10 more days in jail — making it the 14th time this year he’s been detained.

The decision by a Moscow court late Sunday to find Left Front leader Sergei Udaltsov guilty of a charge of resisting police came a day after Russia witnessed the largest protest rally in its post-Soviet history. As demonstrators vented frustration Saturday with the scandal-marred parliamentary election of Dec. 4 that left Vladimir Putin’s United Russia party in control, many prominent figures called for Udaltsov’s release.

How the Kremlin chooses to deal with Udaltsov could prove a litmus test for how it approaches the opposition in the coming days. During Putin’s decade-plus long tenure as president and prime minister, opposition activists have faced numerous crackdowns, but their cause appears to have been boosted by allegations of fraud during the recent election.

The Left Front leader was due to be released Sunday from a hospital, where he was being treated as he served the final days of his previous sentence. Udaltsov, who had been held since election day on claims of staging an unsanctioned rally, had spent much of the month on a hunger strike.

Found guilty of resisting police, Udaltsov was escorted back to the hospital Sunday night after he felt unwell in court.

“He was so stressed out that he fell ill,” Udaltsov’s lawyer, Nikolay Polozov, said.

Prominent opposition leaders came to the court to support Udaltsov. Many have referred to his constant detentions as political harassment. The Left Front leader has spent at least 50 days in jail this year.

The court on Sunday found that Udaltsov resisted police on Oct. 24 while being detained outside the Central Election Committee’s building.

A video of his detention, filmed by the Associated Press Television, shows the activist arrive on a bicycle and later talk to reporters.

Udaltsov was telling the press that he had come out to the election committee’s headquarters to stage a one-man picket, which requires no sanction from authorities. Shortly afterwards, police came and took Udaltsov away. Udaltsov did not appear to be putting [up] resistance.

Udaltsov’s lawyer said they would appeal the verdict.

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State Duma deputy Ilya Ponomaryov and a group of journalists attempt (unsuccessfully) to get into the Moscow courtroom where Sergei Udaltsov was sentenced to another ten days in jail on December 25.

Amnesty International to Russian Authorities: Free Sergey Udaltsov!

www.amnesty.org

UA: 356/11 Index: EUR 46/045/2011 Russian Federation Date: 13 December 2011

URGENT ACTION

Opposition leader held for protest attempt

Russian opposition leader Sergey Udaltsov has been in detention in Moscow since 4 December, solely for attempting to lead peaceful protests against alleged election fraud. He is in need of medical treatment and should be released without delay.

Leader of the political movement Left Front, Sergey Udaltsov, aged 34, is currently held in a detention centre in Moscow. He is being denied adequate medical treatment that he requires following several hunger strikes while in detention over the past weeks. He has problems with his kidneys and reportedly lost consciousness a few times while in detention. A doctor has told his lawyer that he believes Sergey Udaltsov needs hospital treatment.

On 4 December, the day of parliamentary elections in Russia, Sergey Udaltsov was detained outside a metro station in Moscow by plain-clothed officers and sentenced to five days administrative arrest, for allegedly refusing to obey lawful police orders. A friend with him at the time told the court that the police report named a different location as the place of detention, and the officers did not immediately identify themselves as police.

On 7 December he was transferred to a hospital. The administrative arrest warrant expired on 9 December and he tried to leave hospital to go to a demonstration, but police forced him to stay in hospital, possibly to ensure he could not attend. On 10 December he was taken by police to a court and given another sentence of 15 days administrative detention, for allegedly having absconded from detention following an arrest on 12 October 2011. On 11 December, he was returned to hospital. On the morning of 12 December, police reportedly put pressure on his doctors, forcing them to release him and had him transferred back to the detention centre.

Amnesty International considers Sergey Udaltsov a prisoner of conscience, who should not be detained at all.

Please write immediately in Russian or your own language:

Urge the authorities to release Sergey Udaltsov immediately and to give him access to necessary medical care.

Call on the authorities to stop the harassment and persecution of peaceful protesters.

PLEASE SEND APPEALS BEFORE 24 JANUARY 2012 TO:

Head of Special Police Detention Centre Nr. 1
Colonel Dmitry Sukhov
Simferopolski Boulevard 2
117638 Moscow
Russian Federation

Fax: +7 499 317 1754

Salutation: Dear Colonel

Head of Directorate of the Ministry of the Interior for Moscow
Lieutenant General Vladimir Kolokoltsev
Directorate of the Ministry of the Interior for Moscow
Petrovka 38, 12706
Moscow
Russian Federation

Fax: +7 495 698 6631

Salutation: Dear Lieutenant General

And copies to:

Head of the Presidential Council on Development of Civil Society and Human Rights
Mikhail Fedotov
Staraya Ploschad 4
103132 Moscow
Russian Federation

Fax: +7 495 606 4855

Email: fedotov_MA@gov.ru

Also send copies to diplomatic representatives accredited to your country.

Please check with your section office if sending appeals after the above date.

Additional Information

Sergey Udaltsov has been detained numerous times over the last two years for organizing or participating in peaceful protests. He had been detained twice in October 2011 for peacefully protesting against what he considered violations of election procedures, such as the denial of registration of opposition parties and the lack of public participation in politics in general. On 12 October he was sentenced to 10 days administrative arrest and spent the last days of this arrest term in hospital. He left the hospital on 20 October once he felt better. He was not under guard at that time and the doctors had not been instructed to send him back to the police detention centre. Eyewitness accounts and photo and video material seen by Amnesty International strongly suggest that he did not violate the law prior to being detained on 12 October.

Since October, Sergei Udaltsov has taken part in a number of public events. His address is well known to the police. His arrest on 10 December would appear to have been motivated primarily by the desire to prevent his participation in anticipated post-election protests.

“Kind of a sticky situation”: RT on Police Repression of Khimki Forest Defenders

The squeaky clean, neatly coiffured Anglophone kiddies on RT (formerly known as Russia Today) offer up a four-and-a-half-minute lesson in collaborationism:

Vodpod videos no longer available.

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Back in the non-RT-filtered real world, “security guards,” unidentified thugs, and “the police” continue to whack on the Khimki Forest defenders, both on and off the court:

www.ikd.ru

In the early hours of May 14, around 3 a.m., one of the members of the environmentalist camp [in the Khimki Forest], Yuri Petin, was subjected to a vicious attack. Around three in the morning, Yuri was near the grocery store on Vashutino Highway (in the Khimki municipal district), trying to hitch a ride in order to go home. Right at this moment a black Hyundai sedan (whose license number was either х531см or х513см) pulled up. Four men got out of the car and rushed towards Yuri, crying, “Now we’ve got you!” They began to beat Yuri. They threw the activist to the ground and ordered him not to look at them, threatening him with bodily harm.

A man wearing a uniform from the private security firm Vityaz approached the assailants, who began to give him orders in a commanding tone. “I got the impression that they were coordinating the actions of the security guard. Concretely, they told the security guard the following: ‘Tell the police that he [Petin] was tossing firecrackers in the Khimki Forest.’ Then the police drove up. The policemen began chatting with the men who had been beating me and security firm employees. I was then taken to police precinct No. 2, at Kudryatsev Street, 4, in the town of Khimki,” Yuri recounts.

[Petin] was delivered to the police station at 5:30 a.m. and taken to the on-duty interrogating officer. The officer refused to let Yuri file assault charges and began accusing him of setting off firecrackers in the forest. The officer then took a statement from Yuri and questioned the security guards. Police attempted to photograph Yuri and take his fingerprints, threatening to send him to a pre-trial detention facility, but he refused to let them do this. Yuri was held in the police station until 12:00 p.m. At noon, Yuri was sent home, accompanied by police officers, to retrieve his [internal] passport, and at 1:00 p.m. he returned to the police precinct. There Yuri was turned over to a second interrogating officer, who drew up an arrest protocol alleging that Yuri had violated fire safety rules. The officer told Yuri that the protocol would be sent to the fire inspectorate. The accused activist was not given a copy of the protocol. “The interrogating officer told me that he could do with me anything he wanted, that if he wanted he could plant narcotics or a weapon on me and send me to prison,” explains Yuri.

The victim has petitioned the prosecutor’s office, demanding the arrest of the people who attacked him. He has also demanded that the prosecutor take measures against the assailants and Khimki police officers, who violated the law on the police and refused to file assault charges, as well as against the private security guards who gave false testimony to police officers.

Yesterday (May 15), a dozen or so activists from the Russian Socialist Movement, Left Front, and the Pyotr Alexeev Resistance Movement (DSPA) carried out what is fondly known in Russia as an “unsanctioned” march to protest the new round of illegal felling in the Khimki Forest. Five activists were almost immediately arrested by police, and four of the arrestees were later charged with “disobeying the police” and released with a summons to appear later in court. IKD has the details (in Russian).

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How to help the Khimki Forest defenders, who are risking life and limb in the forest

khimkiforest.org

The situation in Khimki Forest near Moscow is very serious. Several times during the last month activists have succeeded in stopping illegal preparatory works for a motorway being carried out at the site, but at the price of repeatedly being beaten and arrested. Every day, activists get beaten up and injured. This morning, Yevgenia Chirikova suffered a leg injury which doesn’t allow her to move for the next 2 days.

Despite all these attacks, the camp in Khimki Forest is still continuing.

Please help and protest:

Ask the Russian government or the Russian embassy in your country to stop immediately this shameful involvement in illegal forest destruction and covering up of criminals! Attacks against activists must be stopped and investigated.

Russian embassy contacts can be found at:
http://www.rusembassy.org/

You can also send a letter to President Medvedev through the online form at:
http://eng.letters.kremlin.ru/

Ask the involved French international construction company Vinci to stop being involved into the Moscow-St.Petersburg road construction project which is clearly associated with violation of civil and human rights, corruption, arbitrary and unlawfulness.

Vinci contacts can be found at:
http://www.vinci.com/vinci.nsf/en/locations/pages/homepage.htm

Petitions are ongoing at: (aimed at Vinci)
http://www.change.org/petitions/save-khimki-forest-stand-with-russias-hu…

and (aimed at President Medvedev):
http://www.avaaz.org/en/save_khimki_forest?vc

Penza: A New Reichstag Fire?

Penza Remembers the Burning of the Reichstag

Dmitry Volchek

Penza civil rights advocates and politicians are disturbed by how an arson at the local office of the United Russia party is being investigated: nearly two hundred members of opposition organizations have been subjected to pressure tactics by the FSB and police.

The building where the United Russian party office is located was torched during the night of November 8. Persons unknown broke a window and tossed in a plastic bottle filled with a flammable liquid and a canister of cooking gas. The windows in several rooms were blown out, and walls and office equipment were damaged. According to Alexei Bulin, secretary of the regional committee of the CPRF, a “witch hunt” has been unleashed in the region. Civil rights advocate Yuri Boblikov told Radio Svoboda how law enforcement officials are searching for the arsonists in Penza.

– After the incident happened, the first person to be detained was the leader of the local Left Front branch, who that day was supposed to be running a previously announced demonstration against worsening social conditions. An hour before the demonstration was to begin, two FSB officers came to his house and led him straight away to the local FSB directorate. Then they detained another colleague of his in the organization, someone that the FSB apparently decided to frighten a bit. [According to this man], one Chekist said to the other, “Well, should we give him an injection?” The other [Chekist] nodded and said, “Let’s do it.” They put on [rubber] gloves, took out a syringe and an ampule, filled the syringe with the liquid in the ampule, and laid it on the desk next to them. Then they said [to the detainee], “Tell us the truth.” Later, I called the FSB and they confirmed that they had talked to Left Front leader Sergei Padalkin, but they denied that there had been anyone else. Moreover, they claimed that their conversation with Padalkin allegedly was about maintaining order at the [planned] demonstration. Everyone knows, however, that such issues are the brief of the police, not the FSB. Padalkin was then released and arrived late for the demonstration. He was again approached by law enforcement officials and hauled away — this time to the Center for Extremism Prevention [Center “E”]. There he was forced to answer questions about what he knew about the arson, whether he knew who did it, where he was during that night. Padalkin was again released, but later that same day he was taken to the criminal investigations department, where he had another conversation about the same topics. This time he was accompanied by one of our lawyers, Dmitry Belyaev.

– Aside from Sergei Padalkin, who else was interrogated?

– When he was at Center “E” he ran into members of the Communist Youth League, the city and regional committee secretaries, who for all practical purposes had been nabbed right at the central office of the Communist Party’s regional organization. The following day their offices [or flats?] were searched; the city committee secretary was searched twice. Members of the Yabloko Party youth organization were searched seven times. [The police] confiscated everything they could get their hands on, but especially hard disks and Yabloko literature. All in all, around two hundred people were brought in for questioning and to make statements or subjected to searches.

– Do you believe the fire was an excuse to clamp down on the opposition of whatever stripe, to shake down everyone involved in politics?

– Yes, a “purge” of all dissenters, opposition activists, and merely active citizens is under way. Events are unfolding according to a scheme reminiscent of the burning of the Reichstag in 1933.

– There had already been an attempt to torch the United Russia office in June.

– Yes, but it was unsuccessful. Then, a mythical organization calling itself New World had allegedly claimed responsibility. We were also asked then what we knew about them. We said we knew absolutely nothing, that we had no information about this organization. It is entirely possible that Penza is just being used as a test site to develop techniques for political purges. Our guess is that [the authorities] want to use our city to try out methods for flushing out and suppressing oppositionists and just-plain socially active citizens and forces. Once they have tried them out here, they can then be applied throughout Russia.

– You’re not sure that opponents of the United Russia party are behind the arson?

– In our opinion, these incidents are beneficial to the ruling party itself: it enables them to extinguish the activities of all other organizations and movements. Opposition forces have nothing to gain from such excesses. We believe that this is all a provocation.

– But Viktor Dolotov, the secretary of the political council of United Russia’s Penza branch, said that this was a carefully planned political crime against the party of power.

– If that is what he claims, does that mean he knows who organized all this? Then he should be the first one they interrogate!

Russia Today

Russia Today

A few news items from the past few days that you probably won’t see on the Kremlin’s English-language propaganda channel Russia Today, which has begun affectionately calling itself “RT.”

Raid on Left Front Headquarters in Moscow

On the morning of October 31, police raided the Moscow headquarters of the Left Front. The police allegedly didn’t present a warrant for any of their actions, explaining only that the raid was part of a criminal investigation into the “creation of an extremist association.” During their search of the premises, they confiscated the hard disk from the office’s computer, as well as two laptops, flags, newspapers, and leaflets. They also beat up and arrested the six Left Front members who were present in the office during the raid. The six were taken to Tverskoye police precinct, where they were charged with “disobeying police officers,” which is an administrative offense.

On its website, the Left Front alleged that the raid was meant to intimidate the leftist opposition in the run-up to a demonstration planned for November 7 on Red Square. They also connected it to the growing public activeness of their own organization.

More information (in Russian) here and here.

Happy Birthday, Center “E”!

"57 Extremists Have Arrived"

Later that same day, also in Moscow, anarchists marked the first anniversary of the Interior Ministry’s notorious Center for Extremism Prevention aka Center “E.” This theatricalized action included voluntary “registration” of “extremists,” who were given commemorative IDs for their honesty. Similar actions were held in a number of Russian cities.

The activists made four demands: 1) disband Center “E” as an institution that endangers society; 2) excise the concept of “extremism” from Russian laws; 3) abolish Russian Federation Law No. 114 “On the Prevention of Extremist Activity”; 4) allow Russian citizens to exercise their constitutional rights to freedom of speech, freedom of assembly, and a free press.

Although the activists had obtained permission for the event, the police found an excuse to arrest seven of them. They were charged with petty hooliganism, an administrative offense.

More details (in Russian) here. 

Thanks to anatrrra for the photograph. You can see their full photo reportage of the action here. The website of the campaign to put an end to Center “E” and stop the persecution of “extremists” is here (in Russian). You can read the campaign’s manifesto (in English) here.

A Road Trip to Naberezhnye Chelny

We’ve been there and probably won’t be going back. But if we do decide to revisit that green and pleasant city in Tatarstan, home of the KamAZ truck factory, we wouldn’t like to do it the way that The Other Russia activist Sergei Yezhov did. According to Yezhov, on the evening of October 23 he was approached by three plainclothes police officers outside the Vodyni Stadion metro station in Moscow:

They put my arms behind my back, led me across the road, and put me into a silver-colored Mitsubishi. Two of them sat on either side of me, while [the third] got behind the wheel. They all began persuading me to ‘cooperate’ with law enforcement authorities. They confiscated all my personal belongings, including my telephone, money, keys, passport, etc. They beat me and demanded that I turn in my comrades, supporters of Eduard Limonov. They demanded that I call my comrades right away and arrange to meet them; they would also be arrested at these meetings. I refused. That is when they threatened to take me out of town, where anything whatsoever might happen to me. In some sense they followed up on this threat. They took me to Naberezhnye Chelny, where, I was told, I would be a witness and have to give testimony in some criminal case whose nature wasn’t made clear to me. We were on the road around fourteen hours, and during that whole time they didn’t let me contact my relatives or my wife.

“The People Who Caused the Crisis Should Pay for It” Is an Extremist Slogan

When the Russian authorities aren’t seizing computers, clamping down on anarchists or driving people to Naberezhnye Chelny in silver Mitsubishis as part of their non-stop efforts to root out extremism, they are busy adding items to their official list of “extremist literature.” The Institute for Collective Action reports that the new version of the list features six new items — leaflets issued by the Interregional Trade Union of Autoworkers (ITUA) and the leftist organization SotsSopr (Socialist Resistance) that were ruled “extremist” by a court in Tver on August 28, 2009. Among the offending slogans were:

• The People Who Caused the Crisis Should Pay for It
  
• Against Irregular Employment
• We Should Not Have to Pay for Their Crisis

Don’t Ask Any Stupid Questions and We Won’t Give You a Concussion

Unfortunately, some individuals in Russia aren’t impressed by all these nimble displays of police work. One of those morons is Petersburg civil rights lawyer Grigory Solominsky. As Zaks.Ru reports, Solominsky is now facing criminal charges for “publicly defaming a representative of the authorities during the performance of his duties.” How did he do that, you ask? It’s really quite simple.

When Solominsky, who has been defending traders at Petersburg’s Khasansky Market from attempts by city authorities to shut the place down and auction it off (thus leaving some 400 traders high and dry, and a few thousand people out of work), heard on October 9 that police had arrived there and were carrying out a search of the market’s administrative offices, he rushed to the scene. When he arrived he found a group of plainclothes police had blocked off part of the market with their cars. He asked them why they were preventing the merchants from doing their work; he also asked them to show him IDs. That was the last straw:

In response, they jumped on me, hit me in the face, threw me on the pavement, hit me again hard a few more times, threw me into a VAZ 2109 car without police license plates, and drove me to the 13th Police Precinct.

Solominsky was later taken by ambulance to the Alexandrovsky Hospital, where he was diagnosed with a concussion.

Although he tried to file charges against the arresting officers, the investigating officer refused to open a case. Instead, Solominsky himself has been charged with violating Article 319 of the Russian Federation Criminal Code. All his “victims” and their witnesses have testified that Solominsky offended the policemen by using “extremely foul language.”

If convicted, Solominsky faces a maximum sentence of six months to a year of hard labor.

Just Say No to Racism — And Show Us Your Papers

"Murdered by Nazis"

On October 31, Petersburg’s anti-racists and antifascists held their annual March against Hatred. This is practically the only opposition “march” that the authorities still allow to actually march anywhere — in this case from the Yubileiny Sports Complex, on the Petrograd Side, to Sakharov Square, outside Saint Petersburg State University. Once they arrive there, the marchers hold a rally to express their outrage at the extremely heavy toll of beatings and murders exacted by neo-Nazis on the city’s anti-racist and antifascist activists, ethnic minorities, and foreign visitors and residents. (To see the body count as of winter 2008, check out the centerfold map in the BASTA! special issue of our newspaper.) 

When they arrived at Sakharov Square yesterday (as always, with a heavy police escort), they found representatives of the Federal Migration Service waiting for them. According to local channel  TV100, the FMS checked the residence permits of several marchers, although they didn’t go so far as to detain anyone. The demonstrators demanded that the FMS spooks either leave the square or join the rally.

On the other hand, what are those marchers making such a fuss about? After all, Petersburg just won a prize from UNESCO for its “constructive efforts to inculcate mutual respect and tolerance in a multi-cultural and multi-ethnic society and to prevent and eradicate all forms of discrimination.” However, as Alexander Vinnikov, one of the march organizers, has pointed out, “The UNESCO decision came as an even bigger surprise than the news about Obama winning the Nobel Peace Prize. […] Neither winners have done anything to deserve the prize, which means the awards were given for political reasons, unfortunately.”

Thanks to Sergey Chernov for the photo. You can see his photo reportage of the march here, here, here, and here. Vladimir Volokhonsky’s videos from the march can be accessed here.

Let’s Declare War on the Old-Age Pensioners

Okay, so you’ve taken care of all the “extremists” — the leftists, anarchists, Limonovites, trade unionists, market traders, civil rights lawyers, and anti-racists. Is there any other group of potential or real Russian extremists you’ve forgotten about? Of course, the old-age pensioners! The Moscow Times has all the thrilling details:

Interior Ministry officers tested out their newest techniques for dispersing rallies Thursday, in exercises that news agencies said were focused on dealing with angry pensioners.

According to the ministry’s scenario for the drill, a group of pensioners gathered for an unsanctioned demonstration and blocked an important highway to seek social support, Interfax reported. Within several minutes, the crowd was dispersed with water, tear gas and stun grenades, while some of the elderly demonstrators were arrested.

Demonstrators have blocked several roads this year, most notably in the Leningrad region town of Pikalyovo.

The Interior Ministry later said in a statement that the information about the dispersed pensioners was incorrect and that special equipment was not “used and is not generally used in practice, except for psychological influence.”

The mock demonstration of force came ahead of Russia’s traditional protest season, with opposition movements planning to hold a series of rallies in early November coinciding with National Unity Day and former Soviet holidays.

“The fall is a period of heightened public activities, largely driven by the recent election campaign,” said Mikhail Sukhodolsky, a deputy interior minister, RIA-Novosti reported. The end of the summer holidays and seasonal employment would add to the size of demonstrations, he said.

The ministry also showed off new technology, including the Groza and Shtorm water-canon vehicles. Clips of the drills, held in the Moscow region town of Balashikha, were shown on Vesti-24 state television.

The exercises were part of the Interpolitekh-2009 international fair of law enforcement equipment. Reporters in attendance were also shown a mobile policeman robot, Metallist, Interfax said.

“Most of the samples presented today in the course of the exercises were made in Russia and are or will soon be taken into service,” Interior Ministry Rashid Nurgaliyev said.