From ABC Moscow…
When mass civil protests in Russia were defeated in 2011-12 the Putinist
police regime started open political repressions against militants of
social and political movements, including anarchists and antifascists.
Many activists have been sentenced to prison terms in the course of the
last 5 years in Russia.
We call on comrades from the whole world to show solidarity with Russian
anarchists and antifascists – prisoners of the Putinist police state,
and distribute information about the international solidarity decade as
widely as possible, maybe organise an event in your own town.
It could be an info-party where letters could be written, a film show, a
fund-raising event, a benefit gig, a protest action at the Russian
embassy in your own country, a solidarity action – only your fantasy is
the limit.
Facebook event: https://www.facebook.com/events/1774132002816021/
“Vkontakte” event: http://vk.com/abc_solidarity_days
Please see brief description of repressions to which Russian anarchists
and antifascists were subjected.
Dmitry Buchenkov
A well-known antifascist and anarchist Dmitry Buchenkov, PhD in
political science, was arrested in Moscow in December 2015. He is
suspected of participating in the riots of May 6, 2012. More than 400
persons were arrested as a result of a mass protest action against
Putin’s politics that took place on May 6, 2012 in Moscow. Dmitry was
not in Moscow on that day, he was in Nizhny Novgorod, more than 300 km
away from Moscow.
Dmitry is a long-time participant of the antifascist and anarchist
movements and he has done a lot for their development. Dmitry’s comrades
and friends believe that the arrest is related to his political
militancy and his active position regarding the developments taking
place in the country.
Dmitry Buchenkov, 36, lecturer of history and political science, PhD in
political science, associate professor, worked as Deputy Chairman of the
Medicine History and Socio-Humanitarian Science Department in the
Russian National Research Medical University named after N.I.Pirogov in
Moscow. Prior to 2008 he worked as an associate professor of the
Philosophy Department in the Volga State Pedagogy University (Nizhny
Novgorod) for five years. He was fired for his political activism.
Dmitry moved to Moscow after he had had to quit the Volga University.
In Moscow Dmitry joined the local cell of the Autonomous Action, whose
member he had already been since 2002. This is how he describes the
ideology he shares in a book entitled “Anarchists in the late XX century
in Russia” published in 2009: «Basic worldview values of anarchism
(self-management, self-organisation, anticapitalism) are still relevant
today». In 2013 Dmitry quit the Autonomous Action organization, but he
did not give up his political activism.
He authored several books on history and modern condition of anarchism
in Russia. He is an activist of the antifascist and anarchist movements.
Dmitry actively participated in organising efforts and life of the
antifascist and anarchist movements in Moscow. He organised many street
antifascist protest actions, different cultural events. He took part in
the establishment of an antifascist centre called «V project», where
antifascists and anarchists held their gigs, meetings, and prepared
their actions. Police and FSB more than once threatened to attack Dmitry
physically for his political activities and struggles. In 2015 unknown
persons, probably police or FSB agents, severely beat Dmitry up, so that
he got brain concussion, was all covered in blood and couldn’t even
remember how the assault occurred.
Dmitry Buchenkov planned to organise an all-Russian antifascist and
anarchist forum “Self-management and Libertarian Communism” in early
2016. But the authoritarian Putinist regime police arrested him.
Dmitry Buchenkov solidarity groups:
https://www.facebook.com/freebuchenkov/
https://vk.com/freebuchenkov
Address: 125130, Moscow, 20 Vyborgskaya Str., SIZO “Vodnik”, Dmitry E.
Buchenkov, (date of birth: 22 August 1978)/
Alexei Gaskarov
A well-known antifascist and anarchist. An organiser and participant of
many anarchist and left-wing conferences. He was arrested on 3 August
2010 on the Khmiki case after an administrative building in Khimki had
been assaulted on 28 July 2010. An environmental protest action took
place in Khimki against deforestation of big chunks of a reserve forest
in order to build a toll road. On 15 October, 2010, the court decision
on the arrest was recalled. On 24 June, 2011, he was legally acquitted
by the Khimki municipal court.
He was strongly beaten by police on 6 May, 2012, at Bolotnaya square
during a political opposition protest, so he filed a petition on riot
police power abuses involving violence and riot control weapons.
On 28 April, 2013, he was apprehended and the following day arrested on
accusation of leading a group of persons who actively participated in
mass riots that supposedly took place at Bolotnaya square and of
violence against a policeman. Later the accusation included two
policemen supposedly attacked by Gaskarov: according to investigation
data, Gaskarov grabbed a shoulder of an interior troops soldier and then
he grabbed a leg of Igor Ibatulin, a riot police officer. The final
version of the charge is also saying that he participated in mass riots
at Bolotnaya square. On 18 August, 2014, the court sentenced Gaskarov to
three and a half years in a general regime penal colony.
Many political activists relate Gaskarov’s imprisonment to a direct
revenge from political police called the «Centre for Combating
Extremism» for his long-time political activism. Gaskarov support
website — gaskarov.info
Addresses for letters: Gaskarov — 301654, Russia, Tula Oblast,
Novomoskovsk, 27 Centralnaya Str., IK-6 UFSIN, detachment 5, Alexei V.
Gaskarov, (Date of birth: 18/06/1985)
Alexei Sutuga
A well-known antifascist and anarchist from «Autonomous Action». Charged
with hooliganism for supposedly beating up nationalists in a brawl.
Sentenced to three years and one month of colony.
Sutuga was apprehended in April 2014 in Moscow by political police from
the «Centre for Combating Extremism» after an antifa gig. During
interrogation he was asked about his trip to Maidan (Ukrainian protests
in Kyiv in 2014). Alexei was accused of participation in a brawl on 2
January, 2014, in «Sbarro» bar, where he kicked and beat several persons
with a chair and a selfmade hammer.
Sutuga himself said he tried to stop other people fighting — the brawl
was between Neo-Nazis and some other youths. On October 1 Sutuga was
sentenced to three years and one month of colony. On December 17 the
appeal court left the sentence unchanged.
On 17 March, 2015, while in Irkutsk remand prison, from where he had to
be transferred to a colony, Sutuga went on a dry hunger strike because
he had been pressurised in the remand prison: he was offered to stay
there instead of the colony, and when Sutuga had refused, they got hold
of his letters and books. When the news on his hunger strike leaked
outside the remand prison, he was transferred to the colony. The he
stopped his hunger strike. In the colony Sutuga was subjected to a
solitary confinement cell. He is constantly pressurised by the prison
administration.
Address for letters: 665809 Irkutsk Oblast, Angarsk, First Industrial
Cluster, quarter 47, building 6, IK No.2, Alexei V. Sutuga, born in 1986
(you can send him only 1st class registered mail) or you can write via
Rosuznik website
Ilya Romanov
On 6 August, 2015, a visiting board of the Moscow district military
court passed a sentence upon Ilya Romanov, anarchist from Nizhny
Novgorod – 10 years of high-security prison. The court ignored all
arguments brought forward by defence. Afterwards the term was changed to
9 years of high-security prison.
Romanov was injured by a self-made firecracker’s explosion in October
2013, but they re-qualified him from an unfortunate experimenter to a
“terrorist”. Apart from that firecracker an “interview” that he had
given in December 2012 in a suburb of Donetsk was used in his case. Both
“crimes” were incomplete: Ilya Romanov is accused of trying to menace
local population and authorities of Nizhny Novgorod in order to save
Kulibinsky park from tree-felling, but he didn’t manage because the
device exploded during a test. He also supposedly tried to propagate
terrorism through Ukrainian media, namely «Radio RKAS – Libertaire», but
he didn’t manage to accomplish it either. It appears that it is not a
radio station, rather an internet blog. The interview itself is just a
Dictaphone record made at a party following his release from prison.
Romanov, whose family consists of retired parents and a teenage daughter
is the poorest of all inmates. His family hardly manages to bring him
parcels now and then, while Romanov also has to pay for a lawyer working
on two supervisory complaints.
431130, Republic of Mordovia, Zubovo-Polyansky region, Lepley, FKU
IK-22, Ilya E. Romanov. (Birthdate 3 July 1967)
Alexander Kolchenko
On 25 August, 2015, the military court in Rostov-upon-Don passed a cruel
sentence against Ukrainian film director Oleg Sentsov and Crimean
antifascist Alexander Kolchenko. The investigation authorities called
them “terrorists” — allegedly Sentzov guided by the «Right Sector» from
Kyiv (banned in Russia) founded a “terrorist group” in Simpheropol that
sought to bring Crimea back to Ukraine.
Kolchenko supposedly made part of the group. The “terrorists” set fire
on the office doors of “Crimean Russian Community” and a window in the
local office of the “United Russia” (the ruling party in Russia). During
the court, Gennady Afanasiyev — one of key witnesses upon whose words
the accusation was built — said that his testimony was either given
under torture or simply invented. Afanasyev got 7 years in prison on the
“Crimean terrorists” case. Oleg Sentzov was sentenced to 20 years and
Alexander Kolchenko to10 years in prison for burning a door and a window.
Address for letters: 456612, Chelyabinsk Oblast, Kopeisk, 20
Kemerovskaya Str., IK-6, detachment 4, Alexander A. Kolchenko, born in 1989.
Anarchist Black Cross – Moscow Fund
Money is needed to support our comrades in their labour camps and remand
prisons. Anarchist Black Cross – Moscow calls on everyone to show
solidarity, help, and if possible transfer this so much needed money to
the Anarchist Black Cross – Moscow accounts.
If you have any questions on how to make a money transfer or any other
wishes, please write to avtonom46@gmail.com and abc-msk@riseup.net
Paypal-account: avtonom46@gmail.com and abc-msk@riseup.net
Anarchist Black Cross – Moscow
