On August 5, Savely Frolov celebrates his birthday. He turns 24.
Savely is an anti-fascist and anti-war activist from Moscow. He used to be a fencing coach and in the summer he traveled to Altai, where he worked as a pararafting and parakayaking instructor at a charity camp for children with cerebral palsy. Savely took part in the 2021 protests, and after the full-scale invasion of Ukraine by the Russian army, he handed out anti-war leaflets near the metro and held solo pickets.
At the end of October 2022, he was detained while trying to legally leave Russia for Georgia at the Verkhny Lars checkpoint. He was beaten, threatened with rape using a mop, blackmailed with threats against his family, and forced to unlock his phone. On his phone, authorities found a subscription to the Telegram channel Legion Freedom of Russia. He was initially subjected to three consecutive administrative arrests, and then charged with “treason” under the accusation of “preparing to defect to the enemy.” According to the investigation, Frolov planned to travel from Georgia to Turkey, then to Poland, and ultimately to Ukraine to take up arms against Russian aggression. He was sentenced to 6 years in a strict-regime penal colony.
In prison, Savely has faced pressure from the administration. Last year, he was threatened with transfer to a punishment unit (strict detention conditions) for receiving the "Prison Bulletin" newsletter. Later, it became known that he had been demoted to the lowest caste in the prison hierarchy, ”the downgraded”. As with Azat Miftakhov, it's believed this was orchestrated by law enforcement through inmates under control of the administration. However, as an anti-fascist, Savely does not accept hierarchies or discrimination and is unfazed by the informal status imposed by the administration and other inmates. “He just doesn’t care about it at all,” says a comrade who knows Savely well and stays in touch with him.
The prison caste system is a structure of violence designed to break a person’s will, humiliate them, and turn them into a cog in a dead hierarchy. We are being forced into a “code” where the “downgraded” one is not the person who is humiliated but the one who doesn’t submit to criminal authority. This is violence wrapped in the false romance of “honor.” It’s not a code—it’s a chain meant to keep us and the entire people in place.
Now, more than ever, it’s important to show solidarity. Send your comrade birthday wishes! You can share news or simply express your support.
Address for letters: Saveli Aleksandrovich Frolov 2001 g.r., IK "Sosnovyi bor", Sebezhskii rayon, poselok Sosnovyi bor, 182277, Pskovskaya obl, Russia.
Anarchist Black Cross Moscow
Add new comment