Soldier strikes win! New Year's report on direct action against war and mobilization in Russia (part 17)

The number of criminal cases in Russia against those who refuse to fight is growing rapidly. Contract soldiers who do not want to fight are returning from Ukraine despite the threats of their commanders. They are accused of leaving the unit without permission. In the fall, the first cases against the mobilized began to appear, and already in the winter, the first sentences. From January to early December 2022, the courts received 948 cases on unauthorized abandonment of the unit. Against the backdrop of the war, there are more cases than last year, but a particularly noticeable increase begins in the summer.

At the same time, jails for the "guilty" soldiers in the occupied part of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions are only planning to legalize. So far, even the disenfranchised Russian mobilized on the Svatovo-Kremennaya line, which opens the gates from Kharkov to Donbass, manage to protest against being sent into the meat grinder. Back in early December, we informed that the illegal basement for such citizens in the village of Zaytsevo (on the Kharkov-Lugansk-Belgorod borderland) was disbanded thanks to the steadfastness of those who were pressed there and media publicity. Almost all of the about 300 who were forcibly detained were taken to Russia, offering to serve in the rear and not be thrown into the front again. Another such camp for refusers was found in the village of Makarovo on the Lugansk-Rostov border. Some of the approximately 90 fighters who had been there for more than a month were also sent to the RF as of mid-December. Many of the prisoners did not want to leave the army at all, but only asked to be sent to units away from the front line. More information about this, as well as about the commander of the 7th motorized rifle company in the so-called "LPR's People's Militia", who was executed when his fighters fled from the battlefield, you can find in our big special report.

The battalion of the 127th separate reconnaissance brigade from Sevastopol refused to take part in hostilities during the formation on November 14, then confirming this on paper. The ASTRA Telegram channel learned about this from a relative of some serviceman. From his words, the reason was very heavy losses - they do not want to die in vain. After the refusal, they remained on the territory of the Kherson region, and the battalion commander, Lieutenant Colonel Andrei Yevgrafov, received a severe reprimand "for the low level of work with personnel":

From other hand, five officers of the Russian Armed Forces who wrote reports about refusing to fight in July 2022 still remain missing. According to ASTRA, the young people were sent to Bryanka, then to the military commandant's office in Alchevsk, and from there they were fraudulently taken to a basement in an unidentified settlement. Since then, no one has seen them again. Mothers personally came several times to the Lugansk region in search of their sons. During these few months, in the responses of official departments, they were either "performing combat missions", "or "arbitrarily leaving a unit", or simply "missing."

In the time since the previous review, evidence has regularly appeared about the simple flight of soldiers from units. So, on December 6, in Novoshakhtinsk, was caught a mercenary from the PMC Wagner, who escaped with a machine gun and wounded a cop in the pelvis while combing the area. The next day, he was found in an empty building. This shooter turned out to be 38-year-old Pavel Nikolin (photo below), convicted in 2016 of robbing other robbers - microloan offices, and recruited for the war from a colony in Ufa. He said that he fell behind his group, got lost, returned to the Rostov region and wounded a policeman because confused him with the Ukrainians. Interestingly, Ukrainians really go on a combat mission with flashing lights on?

On November 22, it became known that more than 20 mobilized from the Republic of Mordovia, who received leave in honor of National Unity Day, did not return to the training center in Ulyanovsk. Among them was a cancer patient, at that time he had already been returned to the unit. On December 15, information appeared about the flight of one mobilized from the training ground in Sergeevka (Primorsky Krai), at once with four automatic rifles! He was soon detained. On the evening of December 26, eight mobilized fighters who had left the front in the Lugansk region came to the police station of Podolsk near Moscow with rifles and machine guns saying they wanted to hand over their weapons. The cops did not appreciate their impulse of the soul, called military investigators to the place and they put the men in custody in one of the military units of the Moscow region...

The next day, December 27, in the same Podolsk, there was an attempt to burn the military commissariat. A retired married couple was immediately detained: 76-year-old Maria Medvedeva and 70-year-old Alexander Rassokhin. The man brought a canister of gasoline to the wooden building, soaked a rag, set it on fire and put it on the window, despite the fact that a patrol car had already arrived at the place. His wife filmed what was happening on camera from afar. A window burned down, the further spread of fire was avoided. Unfortunately, the brave pensioners are arrested. You can watch their attack on this movie.

There is also a suspect in throwing a Molotov cocktail on the roof of the Mukhorshibir military commissariat, Republic of Buryatia, on the night of October 17. Mikhail Babintsev is in custody. He was charged under the article "terrorist act" (part 1 of art. 205 of the RF Criminal Code), which provides for a punishment of 10 to 15 years in prison:
Along with this, the accusations were toughened for those suspected of the bright arson of such facility in Nizhnevartovsk, which became the title picture of our May review. Residents of Nizhnevartovsk, Vladislav Borisenko and Vasily Gavrilishen, were suspected of deliberate destruction of property and hooliganism, but now they are charged with a terrorist act. They are judged by the Central Districtal Military Court. On a new charge of "a terrorist attack committed by a group of persons by prior agreement," young people could face 12 to 20 years in prison. According to law enforcement agencies, this is one of the first cases of reclassification of the case after the arson of the military registration and enlistment office in Russia.

The investigation into the case of Roman Nasryev and Aleksey Nuriyev, who face up to life imprisonment for the anti-war incendiary attack on the town administration of Bakal, has been completed. On December 29, the Central District Court of Chelyabinsk extended their detention in the pre-trial detention center for them until February 4. Until that date, the investigator plans to take the case to court. The guys were detained on October 11. Initially, they were accused of “destroying or damaging property” (part 2 of article 167 of the Criminal Code), but the FSB took up the case and reclassified the charge as committing a “terrorist act” (part 2 of article 205). Later, the defendants were charged with “undertaking training for the purpose of carrying out terrorist activities” (article 205.3). The sanction of the article provides for punishment from 15 to 20 years or life imprisonment. On the basis of the accusations, Nasryev and Nuriyev face 15 to 30 years, or life imprisonment. Solidarity Zone has already raised 80,000 rubles for legal aid. At least one of them adheres to leftist views, in the photo Roman is on the left, Alexei is on the right:

However, the guys who set fire to the enlistment center in Cherepovets in early May were given suspended sentences. They threw six Molotov cocktails. The mitigating condition was that the guys were 16 and 17 years old. Although the arson was very successful, they burned down the Russian Registry office located in the same building - not the military commissariat itself.

Several heroes of our materials from the beginning of the war were convicted in Belarus. Vitaly Melnikov, who, according to investigators, set fire to a relay cabinet on the Novosady-Borisov railway line in March 2022, was sentenced by the court to 16 years in a strict regime colony. He did this so that Belarus would not be able to provide military assistance to Russia in the war with Ukraine, driving military cargo through this railway line. During the arrest, the servants of the regime shot the man in the legs. The Prosecutor General's Office explained this as a "real threat of armed resistance" from Melnikov. He still walks on crutches:

Then, on December 27, the verdict was announced in a criminal case against political prisoners from Svetlogorsk. Dmitry Ravich was sentenced to 22 years in a penal colony, Denis Dikun - to 23 years, Oleg Molchanov - to 21 years. They were also fined 150 basic units each (4,800 rubles), and all valuables seized during searches at their homes were confiscated. They were also accused of setting fire to the signaling, centralization and blocking relay cabinet at the Zherd-Ostankovichi railway station on February 28. At the same time, they were convicted of "treason to the state" and registration in bots of "extremist Telegram channels". The trial took place behind closed doors for three months, so the position of political prisoners in the case is unknown.

On November 16, it was reported that a rail saboteur was detained in Irkutsk. Previously, he allegedly wrapped the rails with copper wire, intending to disrupt the movement of trains. He also attached sheets from a school copybook with a message of "extremist content" to the tracks. Looks like that they found him on this trail. The partisan turned out to be 18-year-old Ilya Podkamennyi, who works at Subway. Under an article for "public calls for the implementation of extremist activities", he faces up to 4 years in prison.

On December 21, in the same Irkutsk, also was detained 18-year-old boy on suspicion of setting fire to an enlistment center in September. He reportedly created a cryptocurrency fund, raised on its accounts 8000 rubles, and with this money bought what was necessary for a combative act.

The All-People's Movement of the Legion "Freedom of Russia" this month claimed responsibility for a number of railway arsons. Of course, we are critical of their liberal and pro-Ukrainian views, but just admire how beautiful it is! On the night of December 6, partisans destroyed four signaling, centralization and blocking devices on the Trans-Siberian Railway near Krasnoyarsk:

On the evening of December 9, relay cabinets were burned near Krasnodar, temporarily interrupting train communication with Crimea:

On the afternoon of December 10, they destroyed the signaling, centralization and blocking system in the area of Ivanovo:

On December 11, due to damage to a high-voltage transformer in Sorokino of the Krasnoyarsky Krai, there was a malfunction in the Trans-Siberian Railway. As of the evening of that day, the railway lines in this section were de-energized. Preliminary damage is more than 6 million rubles:

A new arson of a military registration and enlistment office took place in the Saratov region: on December 23, from the village of Ivanteevka, a fire was reported in the office of a duty officer - a plastic bottle with the remnants of gasoline and, presumably, oil was found there. The fire was extinguished before it moved to other rooms, but the office was badly damaged by fire. A couple of days later, a suspect appeared. It turned out that this is a former deputy of the ruling party, 41-year-old Daniil Akimov. According to him, hooliganism was the main motive. He was a deputy from United Russia in one of the villages back in 2011. At the moment he was listed as an entrepreneur, he was recently accused of producing and selling goods without labeling:

On the night of November 22, unknown people broke the window in the National Library of Chuvashia with the letters Z and V. What a shame - to put on pro-invasion symbols on the temple of science!

On November 25, media of Novorossiysk reported the arrest of a 50-year-old resident who had been sabotaging Z-cars for more than a month. He has dozens of episodes of puncturing tires, breaking windows and painting Z-stickers. Several times his exploits fell on surveillance cameras. The cops say they found screwdrivers, a spray can of car paint, a flashlight, and even planted drugs on him. So as not to think that the hero, probably. Like, if against the war of conquest - a drug addict, or what?

On the night of November 17, someone broke the windows of 8 police cars at once in Rostov-on-Don. One of the women turned out to be from the Ministry of Justice, so the case has already been taken under special control. Bank employees are also among the victims.

In Krasnoobsk of the Novosibirsk region, on September 30, unidentified people set fire to a pro-Kremlin banner. Two weeks later, masked men detained 22-year-old Dmitry Karimov on his way to college, forced him into a car and drove him into the woods. There he was beaten with a stun gun and threatened to "shoot according to martial law" if he did not confess to setting fire to the banner. After this "conversation", the student was found to have bruises, abrasions, and also burns. Under pressure from threats, the young man confessed to this and other arson attacks in August and September. On the basis of these "testimonies" a criminal case was opened against Karimov. The young man has a disability of the third group due to hearing loss, the functions of the central nervous system have been impaired since childhood. He has problems with coordination and is most likely not involved in the arson; real partisans are intimidated through him:

And a criminal case on suspicion of supporting the Anarchists-Communists Combat Organization. On October 31, FSB officers detained Alexander Snezhkov and Lyubov Lizunova (she is only 16) while graffitiing "Death to the regime" in Chita of the Zabaikalsky Krai. As it turned out later, the FSB was more interested in the virtual activities of the guys: a post on the Telegram channel summing up the results of guerrilla activities since the war beginning to mobilization, where arsons of enlistment offices, rail sabotage and BOAK actions were mentioned in a positive way. The guys assume that they were followed for a long time. Investigation is currently underway under three articles: 205.2 (public calls to carry out terrorist activities), 214.2 (vandalism) and 280.1 (public calls to carry out actions aimed at violating the territorial integrity of the Russian Federation). Searches were carried out, equipment, records and anti-fascist paraphernalia were confiscated from the suspects.

On December 10, Snezhkov and Lizunova were included in the official list of extremists and terrorists. They are currently under bail. The Anarchist Black Cross of Irkutsk is raising funds for lawyers, you can donate in cryptocurrency.

What can be said in conclusion? The Kremlin regime has got into trouble, and is already aware of this. But it cannot break the impasse - the Russian ruling class is too entangled in this bloody web. Forcing Kyiv to agree to an honorable peace for the Kremlin by destroying the energy infrastructure does not work. It remains to repeat the Verdun experiment, with the hope that it will not turn out like in 1916.

Historically, Russia ended unsuccessful wars due to defeats not at the front, but in the rear. During the Crimean War, the allies captured Sevastopol at a high cost, but failed to destroy the Russian army. The main threat to tsarism was not the Anglo-French expeditionary forces, but the exponentially growing number of peasant uprisings and the empty treasury. This was repeated during the Russo-Japanese War. Tsushima, Port Arthur and Mukden were a humiliation for the empire, but its military and economic potential was still much higher than that of Japan. It was the revolution in St. Petersburg and Moscow that forced Nicholas II to sign the difficult Peace of Portsmouth, and not the power of the Mikado. In World War I, the end of the war also came thanks to the rear, not the front. The revolutions in Russia, Germany, Hungary, the revolutionary situation in France, Italy and even Britain turned out to be more important than guns and flamethrowers.

Now the role of the rear in ending the war is discussed much less than the fighting. And this is a big mistake. The protest of the mobilized or their relatives, the steady decline in support for the war and the discrediting of the regime in the eyes of ordinary Russians are more important for the cause of peace than tanks, aviation and the famous HIMARS.

Salute and anarchy to all in 2023!

At the same time, regular blackouts due to Russian missile strikes on power plants also lead to employees paying for bosses' losses out of their own pockets.

Along with this, you may be very interested to look at a historical piece about the takeover strikes at the factories of Kharkov and the role of anarchists in this, when it became the first capital of Ukraine.