On the night of May, 8 a powerful explosion ripped through the Russia's largest coal mine Raspadskaya near the city of Mezhdurechensk, Kemerovo region, followed by another methane blast 4 hours later. Several ground-based structures were destroyed by the double blast which also led to the ventilation system being rendered inoperative. The exact death toll is still unknown. Currently, official media reported 66 workers dead, 84 injured and 24 missing. A sudden excess of level of methane is said to have caused the explosion.

In December, anti-fascist comrade visited Moscow to play in a concert and was stabbed by a Nazi. He was made an operation, but soon a follow-up operation is needed, for which we are gathering money.  In case you are willing to donate, you may use yandex-internet money account  (4100165741055) or donate through ABC-Moscow (instructions available at http://wiki.golosa.info/en/index.php/Donate
 

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:

New full-length CD by Canadian metal / punk band ISKRA www.myspace.com/diskra - you can listen to songs from the album online) has been released on March 17. The CD is called "Bureval" and includes a full-colour digipack with 28-page booklet. About half of the ten songs on the album deal with history of anarchism and resistance in Russia, so this release (by Bloodspit, Drink & Be Merry, Headnoise, Mad Fly and Total Punk) is a benefit for the St.Petersburg Anarchist Black Cross group ( piter.indymedia.org/a4k ), which organises support for political (anarchist and antifascist) prisoners in Russia.  

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".

Champion of  К-1 World Max 2010 East Europe Tournament, which took place in Minsk of Belarus 19th of March, dedicated his victory to acquintances and friends of friends who had to pay with their lives for their anti-fascist ideas.

It is also unusual, that Belarussian champion gave an interview in Belarussian language. Here is the full quote

- In press conference in prior to fight you promised to tell, to whom you will dedicate the fight after winning the tournament…

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.

Situation in Northern Caucasus and Libertarian reaction

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This article was originally published in Avtonom #30 in the Autumn of 2008. whole issue is available in PDF format  here. It was translated for Abolishing the Borders from Below #35 in Autumn of 2009  with a number of mistakes  corrected and some information updated..

It is of little doubt that the total failure of any attempts to oppose the Second Chechen War was the most bitter defeat of the Russian anarchist movement during the past decade. A feeling of total powerlesness in front of the brutal realities of the Chechenyan meat-grinder was pressing so heavily on the imagination of anti-authoritarians during the first half of the decade, that the movement was onlyable to recovere slightly when the intensity of the war gradually calmed down. 

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.

On April , the 17, 2010 in Kiev will be held the second international tournament of mixed martial arts among the anti-fascists of Europe "No surrender!! II." The tournament is intended to continue the tradition of learning and use of fighting arts not only in the ring or mat, but also in real life situations. Invited to apply are all the caring people who refuse to be reconciled with the dominance of the Nazi terror in the streets of their own cities.

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?