On the evening of November 8, Moscow's Tagansky court ordered that antifascist Alen Volikov be taken into custody. Volikov was detained on suspicion of involvement in the brawl at Moscow's Vozdukh club in December 2011, and of beating up a nationalist.
At about 10.30 p.m. on November 6, antifascist Alen Volikov, 23, and his girlfriend were walking out of a shop in Moscow when police operatives, who drove up in three cars, ran over to them. According to the woman, they presented criminal police IDs and explained the detention by the fact that Volikov is on a federal wanted list.
The crackdown against anti-fascists in Russia has recently gained momentum. The country’s repressive law enforcement authorities view involvement in the anti-fascist movement as a crime in itself.
27th of July, Basmanniy district court of Moscow remanded Alexey Polikhovich for one month. He is 16th suspect for participating to rioting in Bolotnaya square 6th of May 2012, in day of inauguration of Vladimir Putin. He was third arrested anarchist - Aleksandra Dukhanina has been in a house arrest since 29th of May, Stepan Zimin has been in remand prison since 9th of July. Alexey Polikhovich was arrested in the evening of 25th of July, his house was searched and his computer was confiscated.
(This is a partial English translation of a program, aired in Dozhd TV channel 17th of August, which is embedded below.)
Center of Counteraction Against Extremism ("E-Center") in the city of Vladimir did not liked amateur movie "Russian anti-racist skinheads", and they opened a criminal case against makers of the film. According to them, film incited hatred against "social group of skinheads and nationalists".
4th of July, at Presnenski district court of Moscow, judge Dmitry Dolgopolov fulfilled request of the police to imprison two of the six anti-fascists, who were remanded in night of second of July, not far from club "Barrikada". 23 year old Irina Lipskaya and 19 year old Andrey Molchanov, suspected of having committed crimes according to statute of Russian criminal codex 213 part 2 (hooliganism, committed with a group of people). They will be held in remand prison at least until 2nd of September.
On Thursday, the 14th of June anarchist and member of the Moscow - Autonomous Action, Antti Rautiainen, was denied his Russian visa request. The refusal was not exaplained.
Rautiainen had a Russian temporary residence permit, but it was annulled at the end of March. According to authorities, he had made "calls to violently overthrow constitutional order or Russian Federation." He was given 15 days to leave the Russian Federation.
8th of june, investigation committee of Russian Federation announced, that home of 20 year old Stepan Zimin, who was detained as a suspect of having taken part to a riot at Bolotnaya square 6th of May was searched. According to police, a walkie-talkie, ski-mask, molotov cocktail and several passports were found. Stepan himself told his lawyer, Denis Deryukin, that during search only his own passport and army documents of his former flatmate were found. What comes to "molotov cocktail", he said that it was just a bottle of acetone.
It has been a long time since the last call for solidarity with the Belarusian anarchists appeared (http://abc-belarus.org/?p=133&lang=en). Today we have to admit that the new wave of solidarity is needed urgently to help them out from the prison. That’s why we call you to participate in days of action in solidarity with Belarusian political prisoners from June 30 to July 2.
In spring of 2012, anti-fascist movement of Russia has been targeted with new repressions. An excuse for the repressions was an incident in Moscow club "Vozdukh", where 17th of December, during a punk-hardcore concert, a conflict between public and the security took place. Security of the club consisted of supporters of the far right, and were provoking guests. Due to conflict, concert was got halted prematurely, but the security attempted to take some guests as hostages, promising them punishment from their friends - nationalistic football hooligans. Visitors of the concert resisted, the security opened fire with rubber coated metal bullets, but soon guests of the concert gained upper hand and the security was neutralized.
In the far North-West of a once mighty empire, there is a distant province, mostly known due to the sluggishness of its inhabitants. They have still not gotten rid of the statue of a czar, who ruled 150 years ago, in the central square of their capital. Inhabitants of the province have never won a single war, but they have a plenty of other reasons to be proud - for example, a ski-jumper who achieved a lot in 1980, but has since then struggled with a substance abuse problem.
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.
This letter was given to Masha's friends by one of her lawyers, Nikolay Polozov. It was written back when she didn't have an opportunity to pass letters to anyone. She was transferred to a more desnely-populated prison cell after.
March 12, 2012
Second day of pre-trial detention.
9th of March there was a benefit evening in Lund, a student city located in Southern Sweden. One of the topics of the event was repressions against antifascists from Nizhniy Novgorod.
13th of February, a known Moscow anti-fascist Alexey Olesinov was arrested in St. Petersburg with charges of “hooliganism”, related to incident in Moscow club “Vozdukh” 17th of December.
Friends and comrades!
We, the anti-fascists and anarchists of Nizhny Novgorod (Russia), appeal to concerned people around the world. The political police (the Center for Combating Extremism or Center “E”) have fabricated a criminal case against our comrades. Anti-fascism has been outlawed in our city. We need your solidarity and support!
What are the charges against our friends and comrades?
On April 26, 2011, in the morning, six young people were arrested by Center “E” detectives (so-called “Anti-Extremist” cops). Five anti-fascists of Nizhny Novgorod were subject to home-searches. One of the flats was stormed by OMON (Special Police Squad), the windows were broken because nobody was at home.
During the searches the membership cards of a non-existing organisation “RASH-Antifa” with photos and serial numbers, evidently made by Center “E” (Anti-Extremist Center) detectives, were planted in suspects’ homes.
28th and 29th of September 2011 four persons (two young men and two young woman) were detained in Moscow, suspected of crimes under statute 213 part 2 ("hooliganism") and statute 167 part 2 ("property destruction with arson") of Russian criminal codex. They are suspected of having committed a bomb attack against traffic police station in 22th kilometre of Moscow ringroad 7th of June 2011, and arson against an excavator in construction site of Volokamski motorway 5th of June 2011. Police did not have any proof about participation of the arrested to these actions, and 3th of October all of them were released. Goal of the arrests was solely to pressure anarchists to give testimony with means of psychological and physical torture.
Human Rights Center "Viasna" and the Belarusian Helsinki Committee recognized Ihar Alinevich, Mikalai Dziadok and Aliaksandr Frantskevich as political prisoners of the present regime. The human rights defenders came to this conclusion on the basis of analysis of the so-called “Case of Anarchists”.
We call on concerned academics around the world to sign the petition to Administration of Tyumen State University and Russian higher education authorities.
Andrey Kutuzov is a Russian anarchist academic who has been teaching linguistics at Tyumen State University (Western Siberia). He is also an activist and participant in grassroots movements. 7 September 2011 Andrey was dismissed by Gennady Chebotarev, the rector of the University. We believe that Andrey was dismissed because of pressure from the local authorities on the university administration. The official reason for the dismissal was declared “committing an immoral deed” referring to the recent case of repression for his political activities.
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