Wage protest in Melitopol, new soldier strikes, flamy sabotage and all that stuff. Part 20

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For a long time there was no news from Melitopol, occupied in the first days of the full-scale aggression and annexed in September. There, employees of the public sector tried to go to the rally because of three-month wage arrears. A protest on Victory Square in the administrative center of the Russian-controlled part of the Zaporozhye region was thwarted by paying off part of the debt, as well as surrounding the square with civilian-clothed repressive forces and propagandists with cameras. Somewhere nearby, presumably, there was also the Russian Guard - in case the situation worsened. There were rumors that the riot cops were ordered to act tough.

The lucky ones were paid off for January, but not all of their salaries were paid, and not all of them. In particular, the employees of the Melitopol water resorces management (not to be confused with the water utility) complained. They were joined by workers of the water utility in the town of Dneprorudnoye. In some schools, the teachers received money with a delay, and in one of the elementary schools the money has not been available for 2 months.

But some budget employees have not yet been paid even for July 2022. Because of this, local activists suggested that they gather for a street protest on March 16. Despite the completely peaceful and hardly anti-Russian mood of the event, the military authorities were seriously frightened and immediately hurried to blame "Ukrainian agents" for this initiative, the Russian head of the city administration, Galina Danilchenko, personally threatened to be punished under the "laws of war." She convincingly asked the chiefs of enterprises and facilities to keep their collectives at work until 7 p.m., since the rally was scheduled for 6 p.m. "We want to live not to survive!"

SEE ALSO. Survival through solidarity. A few stories from the occupied south of Ukraine.

Over the all past weeks, from the so-called "Donetsk People's Republic" there have been numerous video statements from Russian mobilized soldiers about the refusal to attack Ukrainian positions without sufficient equipment and support with heavy weapons, but we will limit ourselves to only the most striking cases. In the last days of February, Irkutsk mobilized from the 1439th regiment told about shooting for refusal to storm near Avdeevka without artillery support. The "DPR" fighters allegedly fired at the house where they were staying:

For publishing evidence what is happening in this regiment, the editor of the opposition resource "Baikal People" Olga Mutovina was twice visited by cops. They said that the FSB is interested in what she had written and that they would put her in jail if they found her. She is outside of Russia, but they asked where her husband and children were.

On March 8, a video was spread by the mobilized of 1004th regiment from the Kaliningrad region, who loudly rebelled against the "DPR’s" commanders and refused to go to certain death: "No one will go there, it's better to let us imprison. How much do they give, 5-7 years? Fuck it. For whom to die, for what? We refuse to go to storm. We, bitch, are so angry after the death of our comrades, we will walk there, we will leave in a taxi. Fight yourselves, fuck!" They described in detail the "suicidal" assaults, where a company perishes in a week, and demanded the release of their colleagues, who were put in pits for refusing to storm. In conclusion, the men demanded to be transferred to the territorial defense, where they should serve. After the video was published, the mobilized were disbanded into different units so that they could not cooperate and express dissatisfaction. On March 21, the Prosecutor General's Office of the RF issued a decision to block the post about this incident.

Two pieces of news at once came on March 30 from Crimea. There, the court sentenced a local resident to 10 years in prison for trying to burn the enlistment office. According to investigators, a 40-year-old man from the village of Pionerskoye, "being against the conduct of a special military operation, set fire to the building of the military commissariat in Simferopol in May 2022." The man also allegedly tried to blow up the railroad tracks. The name of the convict has not been released. Another man was sentenced by the Crimean court to 9 years of strict regime for desertion. It is alleged that the man served under a contract in Sevastopol. "In order to completely evade the performance of duties <...> not wanting to do military service," he left the military unit without permission and began to spend time in Crimea at his own discretion. "He motivated his acts by the fact that he did not want to participate in a special military operation and do military service" , the Crimean Garrison Military Court claims.

Vladimir Kalinin received 1.5 years probation for vandalism motivated by political hostility (Part 2 Art. 214 of the Russian Criminal Code). On the evening of September 25, a Yaroslavl resident set fire to a Z-banner on the building of the Center for Patriotic Education, which used to be the House of Officers. The fabric is burned underneath. The repressive officials estimated the damage at 35,000 rubles, so the court appointed him a suspended sentence.

Residents of the regions were repeatedly detained for damaging banners and other objects with symbols of the war in Ukraine. Earlier, a resident of Omsk admitted to the police that he burned three Z-cars because of his negative attitude towards the invasion. On the night of December 30, Anton Smolyaninov set fire to a transformer box in Omsk, which fed the anti-tuberculosis dispensary and dozens of private houses. The fire damaged two cable lines. The cops have detained him. Then, he confessed to investigators that he set fire to cars because of his negative attitude towards military operations in Ukraine. The police opened a criminal case against him for the attack and the deliberate destruction or damage of property. Investigators followed him until his arrest.

SEE ALSO. Fiery anniversary. The special news review from Russia on the 24th of February.

16-year-old Yegor Balazeykin, a 10th grade student of the St. Petersburg gymnasium No. 166, was detained by the cops on the evening of February 28, in 100 meters from the military commissariat. A young daredevil from the Leningrad region is suspected of having twice tried to set fire to different enlistment centers. He allegedly threw a Molotov cocktail towards the enlistment office in the Kirovsky district of this region, but it did not catch fire. At that time, the media wrote about a criminal case against him under the article on hooliganism. Then the case was reclassified to a more serious article about an attempted terrorist act. At the same time, the repressive forces suspect the student of another attempt to set fire to the enlistment center - this time in the Krasnogvardeysky district of St. Petersburg.

Yegor is threatened with torture and sexual abuse and kept in the pre-trial detention center, despite a serious illness. A year ago, Yegor was an ordinary St. Petersburg schoolboy. He studied well, went to the sports section, was fond of history. When the war began, the whole family supported the Kremlin. 12 months later, Yegor was detained by the police after an unsuccessful arson. He stopped supporting the war after he saw how many people were dying there, including his uncle. Now he is accused of organizing a terrorist attack and can spend 16 years behind bars - as much as he managed to live. Nevertheless, the guy is steadfast: he adheres to an anti-war position, despite the pressure. It is he:

Another student was arrested in the Republic of Karelia. An activist of the Civic Alliance was captured on suspicion recruiting arsonists of railway infrastructure and administrative buildings. "According to our information, the security forces confirmed the involvement of 19-year-old Nikita Klyunya in extremist posts on social networks. From November 2022 to January of this year, he called on the residents of Karelia to join the ranks of the so-called partisan detachments - to burn and blow up equipment on the tracks, as well as commit sabotage at the buildings of government agencies," the garbage pro-government Telegram channel SHOT states. The Civic Alliance of Russia is an NGO that tries to solve local problems from the "roads are bad" series and participates in elections. Nikita was its vice-chairman and he is in his 3rd year of college. In the organization, Nikita is characterized as a kind and sympathetic adherent of the Protestant religion; they do not believe that he had an underground revolutionary alter ego and committed sabotage at night. Nikita was charged under "assistance to terrorist activity". He faces up to 15 years in prison.

In Novosibirsk, the FSB accused 23-year-old Ilya Baburin of treason. According to investigators, the man, "on the instructions of foreign customers," was looking for "performers to set fire to the buildings of military commissariats." Criminal cases have already been initiated against Baburin on attempted "organizing of a terrorist act” and on "involvement in terrorist activities", which provide for punishment from 15 to 20 years, or life imprisonment. Baburin confessed under torture. Later, he was abused in a pre-trial detention center: he was placed in a psycho-isolator, where he was kept naked in a cell, and also sent to a punishment cell:

On February 27, a bundle with smokeless tubular powder was found between the railway tracks at the Ussuriysk-2 station. At the same station there were platforms and wagons with military equipment. Later, was damaged the railway in the Republic of Buryatia. According to ASTRA sources, on March 5, a technical malfunction was found on the railway tracks at the Lesovoznyi-Talovka stretch. Unknown ones shorted the rail circuit with a wire jumper. Because of this, the train with coal was forced to stop for 30 minutes. Nobody was detained.

In the Republic of Bashkortostan, the arsonist was detained a couple of hours after the sabotage on the railway. Around midnight on March 10, the foreman noticed that a relay cabinet was on fire on the Sibay-Almukhametovo stretch. The fire was quickly extinguished. The suspect was immediately identified - the same night, the security forces came for a 22-year-old unemployed resident of Sibay. He did not deny it and immediately confessed everything. The same SHOT writes that subscriptions to various dubious communities were found on the phone of the saboteur, including he was a member in a group of some unit of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. From the detainee’s words, he bought a bottle of kerosene at a hardware store and poured liquid into the relay cabinet, then set it on fire. This did not affect the schedule of passenger and freight trains. And the arsonist is still facing up to a year in prison under the article "Bringing vehicles or means of communication into disrepair."

Anarchy Today provides a further timeline of rail guerrilla. "On March 12, near the Karlaman station in Bashkortostan, an electrician was completely burned in the relay cabinet, which is responsible for centralizing and blocking communication systems. On March 14, another relay cabinet was destroyed in Buryatia. The same day, similar device was burned on the newly built route before entering the Smolensk region. The result is a serious delay in the train with oil products. For both actions, in Buryatia and near Smolensk, the Revolutionary Movement "Right of Force" took responsibility. On March 16, an arson was committed on the stretch Zorinsky - Trofimovsky-2 in the Saratov region. Two relay cabinets burned down. Local residents were detained on suspicion: 42-year-old Aleksey K. and 55-year-old Samvel P. It is reported that the detainees confessed to arson. On March 28, the partisans set fire to a relay cabinet at the stage Anzherskaya-Zapadnaya - st. Chaly near Adzhero-Sudzhensk in the Kemerovo region. It is reported that the remains of Molotov cocktails, a lighter, sweets and a receipt from the store were found at the site. Plus, interesting data were presented when the head of the line department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs reported to the city deputies of Volgograd. In 2022, the Volgograd Ministry of Internal Affairs recorded 15-17 cases of deliberate damage to railway infrastructure. This figure does not include damage to the rolling stock itself. And this is only one area and only the railway". Plus, for some reason, the digest did not include the destruction by fire of a relay cabinet in St. Petersburg, declared by the same "Right of Force" in a post dated March 18. ASTRA also adds about the arson of another relay cabinet on April 1 at the Ishanovo - Predkombinat section in the Kemerovo region. Burglary tools and traces of a combustible substance were found at the scene. Nobody has been detained.

Something strange happened on March 22 in the Amur region. Although the authorities do not officially name the cause of the fire in the enlistment office of Svobodnyi, there is every reason to think it was the incendiary attack. The fire was put out by two fire engines. In September 2022, in this village, there was already an attempt to set fire to the enlistment center. Then only the facade of the building was burned, but this one seems to be turned out more successfully.

In Krasnodar, the punishers tortured the person in the case of arson of the enlistment office, Oleg Vazhdaev, with electric current. This was told by his lawyer Alexei Avanesyan. They tried to knock out from him a recognition of financing from Ukraine. As a result, he had to incriminate himself. Now Vazhdaev is accused not of damaging property, as was the case before, but of terrorism. On September 25, Oleg tried to set fire to the military commissariat on Yan Poluyan Street with two Molotov cocktails, but one of the thrown bottles caught fire in front of the building, and the second did not break at all. There was no damage to the facility. The man explained the act by the fact that after announcement of the mobilization he was afraid for his friends and relatives. A couple of days later he was arrested:

As it became known on March 3, a 21-year-old conscript in the Primorsky Krai was given 7 years in a colony for setting fire to an enlistment office under the article on a terrorist attack (Part 1 Art. 205 of the Criminal Code). The court decided that the arson of the military commissariat in Vladivostok on the night of June 8 was done to "influence the adoption by the authorities" of the decision to end the war in Ukraine. Someone allegedly promised the conscript 100 thousand rubles for filming the complete destruction of the building (the cops always say this to denigrate the partisans). The guy from Republic of Yakutia was taken into custody. The first 2 years he will serve in prison, the remaining 5 in a strict regime colony.

A resident of Volgograd received 4 years in prison for setting fire to the back room of the enlistment center in this city. 30-year-old Denis Serdyuk was found guilty on February 27 of "damaging or destroying property by arson" and "hooliganism." He also has to compensate the Ministry of Defense for damages of 923.2 thousand rubles. According to investigators, on the night of May 15, a man threw a Molotov cocktail into the building. As a result, the utility room burned out, no one was injured. Denis explained his action by the desire to "stop hostilities."

Aleksey Nechushkin received 4 years in a penal colony for driving a car with anti-war slogans into the fence on Pushkinskaya Square in Moscow. During the action on February 27, 2022, Nechushkin also torched the vehicle. In previous sessions, the guy stated that smoke and fire are symbols of war. Of course, there is little sense from such sabotage, but it looked brightly!

The 2nd Western District Military Court of Moscow sentenced 22-year-old locksmith Kirill Butylin to 13 years of strict regime in the case of arson of the military commissariat. He was found guilty of committing a terrorist act, public calls for terrorism and vandalism. On February 28, 2022, Butylin set fire to the enlistment center in Lukhovitsy of the Moscow region, painted the gate in the colors of the Ukrainian flag and wrote: "I will not go to kill my brothers!" As we wrote then, this was one of the first anti-war guerrilla attacks during the full-scale invasion.

And another sentence for actions on the first weeks of the big war. On March 29, a court in Tula issued a verdict in the case of anti-war inscriptions: anarchists Anton Zavadsky and Faik Khanjigazov were sentenced to non-custodial sentences. With the outbreak of a full-scale war in Ukraine, friends began an anti-war campaign: they distributed leaflets and left inscriptions in public places: "Overthrow Putler! Stop the war!" As we reported then, at the end of March 2022, Anton and Faik were detained. They were accused of "vandalism motivated by political hatred" (part 2 of article 214 of the Criminal Code) and placed under house arrest. Later, the anarchists were charged with "calling for extremist activity" (part 1 of article 280 of the Criminal Code). The defense managed to achieve the replacement of house arrest with a ban on certain actions, which is somewhat simpler. But friends were still threatened with up to 5.5 years in prison. Unexpectedly for everyone, the case was considered in one session. Anton and Faik were given two years of restriction of freedom and a fine of 180 thousand rubles each, and the preventive measure was changed from a ban on certain actions to a written undertaking not to leave. As part of the restriction of freedom, anarchists were forbidden to leave Tula without the permission of the supervisory authority.

Not about anti-militarism but also an episode of social war: in Anapa of the Krasnodarsky Krai, a master from Timashevsk, dissatisfied with pay and working conditions, burned down the employer's car. After the arson, the man left for his hometown, but was found and taken back to Anapa for trial. The total amount of damage was 150,000 rubles. The worker also faces up to 5 years in prison. The night visit was caught on video.

Along with this, workers smashed the ceiling and several ready-made premises in a school near Chita due to non-payment of wages for several months. The innovative school in Kashtak was supposed to be built from scratch in 8 months and completed by December 31, 2022. Senator of the Federation Council Andrey Kutepov praised the school on January 19, having examined only that half of the building that they managed to finish. Later, the government of the Zabaikalsky Krai (Trans-Baikal Territory) admitted that the object had not been built in time, and listed all the work in progress. Someone wanted to deceive everyone, but the builders turned out to be smarter!

The next acts are more likely to be called acts of madness inspired by the horrors of capitalism than rational political gestures, and yet we cannot avoid writing about them. 37-year-old mobilized private Ivan F. on March 5, for unknown reasons, left military unit 54096 in Mulino, Nizhny Novgorod region. There he served as a rifleman. Then the soldier reached the Moscow region. Around 12 noon on March 6, a man entered the military registration and enlistment office in Domodedovo, promising to blow it up and demonstrating, as it turned out later, a dummy F-1 grenade. Then Ivan left the military registration and enlistment office and went down the street, where he was detained by the police. The motive for the act is unknown.

ASTRA just today reported that a Russian mobilized soldier took hostage his colleagues because of the death of his nephews in the war in Ukraine . The incident happened the day before, on April 1 at around 5 pm. 35-year-old mobilized from Chapaevsk in the Samara region Dmitry D., armed, took hostage three officers and five mobilized in the village of Plavna, Klimovsky district, Bryansk region. The capture took place at the place of temporary deployment of military unit 44073, where Dmitry served. The mobilized man had a machine gun and grenades with him. One of the hostages was able to report the incident to the emergency services of the region. The place of capture was cordoned off, traffic was completely blocked in the district. Negotiations were held with the mobilized, during which it turned out that the reason for his behavior was the news of the death of his nephews in the war in Ukraine, who served in the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation. As a result, the young man surrendered, no one was hurt.

On the other side of the front, in the homeland of Nestor Makhno, a drunken civilian (born in 1969) took away a weapon from a fighter of the National Guard of Ukraine (military unit 3033) and began chaotic shooting. This happened on March 17 near a store in frontline Huliaipole. As a result, one serviceman was killed, another one was hospitalized, as well as two civilians. A criminal case was initiated under the articles about "attempted murder" and "theft, misappropriation, extortion of firearms, ammunition, explosives". The shooter was taken into custody for 60 days.

In addition, you are welcome to learn from this recent material how the continuation of general mobilization in 2023 will strengthen social control and competition among the workers of Ukraine.

At the same time, you may be interested in a new interview with the authors of this ongoing review about the activities of the team in own city during the war winter .