"Putin's Russia: the police - tortures, the FSB - poisons, the oligarchs - rule, we are getting poorer". Yesterday big review of Russian anti-invasion actions is waiting for you here. To donate this media group from Kharkiv for help the civilian population please join the crowdfunding campaign.
After the start of the war with Ukraine, supporters of the Socialist Alternative were constantly subjected to pressure from the police and special services. Since February 24, they have served six administrative arrests for a total of 97 days, two supporters were convicted under the article on “discrediting the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation”. Before the anti-military protests, the district police officers visited their houses according to some “SA lists” and even tried to preventively detain their former comrade.
Three activists had "End this war" written with Z-swastika on their doors; after one of these raids, neighbors saw the cops fixing the inscriptions and taking pictures of them, although no one called the police.
SA supporters were under surveillance, police and the Anti-Extremism Center were regularly on duty at the entrances. In search of Ksenia Bezdenezhnykh, the apartments of her parents were monitored, who were escorted for several days by policemen and a car with ECX numbers.
The far-right, who had previously been convicted of working for the Center E, massively wrote statements to various authorities against specific activists of the organization about “extremism, a foreign agency, discrediting the RF Armed Forces, LGBTQ propaganda”, deanonymized and dumped the SA supporters:
"Even before the start of the war in Ukraine, we were faced with pressure, raids on meetings, preventive arrests, regular deanonymizations and cyber-attacks. Also, a freelance employee of the Center E was introduced to us, previously associated with “Citizens of the USSR" and social activism, who collected information for a long time. A month before the start of the war, we figured it out and cut it off from all contacts with the organization".
For Moscow activist Javid, it is the third administrative arrest since February 24. Both of the previous ones involved posts on social media, both times Javid was tracked down by police and abducted from his workplace or on his way from home to work. He was twice charged with offenses under Article 20.2 Part 8 of the Administrative Offenses Code, as well as “discrediting the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation”, but the court did not accept the materials on the last case.
Once again, he was seized a day after his release April 30 from the special detention center, where he spent 30 days. He was seized at the entrance of a friend's house. How the police found out the whereabouts of Javid, we do not know.
This is so-called "arrest carousel", when a person is detained again and again for far-fetched reasons. Last spring, another SA activist, Matvei Alexandrov, became the target of such arrests too. Today Javid was in the Tver Court of Moscow, before which remained in custody at the police station, and sent revolutionary greetings to everyone:
"These Cerberus nightmares me for the anti-war and socialist position. They judge me for the same thing already in the second round, they simply expose themselves to ridicule.
Don't be sad because of me or because of the cases of thousands other anti-war activists, do not despair, because this is what they are after.
I think that in six months a new wave of protests is inevitable. Crisis, prices, shortages, it will infuse new people into the movement, the working class. The main thing is to keep fighting and get organized!"
Javid got new 30 days of arrest for unauthorized public event and the maximum fine for the "discrediting the Armed Forces": 50 thousand rubles. After the second decision comes into force, he will be under the threat of a criminal case for discrediting. As a result, under both protocols, Javid received the maximum punishment, the term of his arrest is now until June 1.
Yesterday, on the advice of a lawyer, his family paid off his past fines. Against the general background, they are small, 30 thousand rubles - for distributing leaflets on the territory of Moscow State University and for coming to support Azat Miftakhov in court. SA announces a fundraising in rubles for the reimbursement of these funds and the payment of a new fine.
We continue to observe the situation.
In addition, see also a material how Kharkiv anarchists help ambulance brigade with bulletproof vests due to the provision of unusable ones by the administration.
Solidarity beyond all borders!
Comments
This is an interesting…
This is an interesting article. I hope the war between the two countries end soon. I really hope it does.