For more photos go to original at
https://avtonom.org/en/node/6967
Year and two days ago, human rights lawyer Stanislav Markelov and
anarchist journalist of Novaya Gazeta, Anastasia Baburova were shot in
cold blood in center of Moscow.
Sad anniversary two days ago, 19th of January, became biggest
manifestation of solidarity with Russian anti-fascists ever – actions
were organised in more than 30 cities in Russia and around the world.
Much has happened during a year, in beginning of November Russian police
arrested two suspects of the murder of Stanislav and Anastasiya – Nazi
activists Nikita Tikhonov and Yevgeniya Khasis. Little is yet known
about the evidence against the two, but amongst Russian anti-fascists
there is a wide belief that double murder was indeed work of Nazis,
although not necessarily by the two alone. Tikhonov was a successful
right-wing journalists and political spin doctor, before an arrest
warrant was issued against him in August 2006 for organizing murder of
anti-fascist Aleksander Ryukhin in April 2006. This arrest warrant was
much due to efforts of Stanislav Markelov, and Tikhonov was forced to go
underground against his personal will – thus he had both political and
personal issues with Markelov.
It is indeed a good question, how come Tikhonov could live freely with
his girlfriend Khasis, and keep murdering for more than three years,
stockpiling firearms and 17 000 dollars of cash from unclear sources,
while his girlfriend was a visible Nazi activist, monitoring courts of
murderous Nazi gangs for Nazi “human rights” organization Russian
Verdict (http://rusverdict.livejournal.com/). Tikhonov was a co-founder
of “Russkiy Obraz”-paper, which later developed to an organization which
has lately cooperated with pro-Kremlin “Young Russia” youth
organization, premises of which were attacked in November after murder
of Anti-fascist Ivan Khutorskoy (https://avtonom.org/en/node/5277).This
is a fertile ground for conspiracy theories, however main thrust of the
demonstration in Moscow, organized by “19th of January committee”, was
against Nazis, not against government authorities who obviously at least
underperformed during search of Tikhonov.
Thus attempts of authorities to suppress protests seem rather
irrational. However one must understand, that in Russia any autonomous
political activity is heavily discouraged and repressed, even when it is
not directly against government authority. And as 19th of January
proved, anti-fascism has become a significant and independent political
force in Russia.
Website of the committee, http://19jan.ru/ was under a constant DdoS
attack in prior to action, government tactics usually organized by using
proxies such as Pro-Kremlin Youth organizations. There was a constant
flow of false provocative statements, disinformation and mudslinging,
coming from “informational agencies” linked to internet activities of
“Anti-Extremist Center” of Russian police. And most importantly, Moscow
authorities banned protest march and allowed only two pickets, for a
maximum of 50 persons both.
Demonstration was endorsed by a number of Russian celebrities, of whom
perhaps most famous abroad is science fiction author Boris Strugatski.
Full list of endorsers is available here:
http://19jan.ru/aktsiyu-podderzhivayut. Politics and tactics of the
committee is an issue of ongoing discussion in Russian anti-fascist
movement – for example few days before the action, Belorussian
anarchists published a statement
(http://www.ainfos.ca/en/ainfos23519.html), which criticized apolitical
analysis of the committee, which did little to point out to roots of
fascism in capitalism and hierarchical worldview. It is obvious, that no
political force should “monopolize” memory of Markelov, who hold
anti-authoritarian leftist views but worked with a wide variety of
persecuted Russian opposition from Chechens to pro-western liberals and
Stalinists. In another hand, decision of January 19th committee to ban
political symbols in Moscow demonstration created an impression of a
certain unity instead of a pack of marginal sects. In other hand,
although Committee was totally anonymous and held all press conferences
wearing masks, faces of political celebrities (from liberal Yabloko
party, Stalinists and human right NGO's) who joined demonstration were
of course prominently shown in media, whereas anarchists and antifa do
not have individuals who are brands in themselves. It is little doubt
that anarchists and other radical antifascists in black bloc dress code
were the biggest single group in the Moscow demonstration, perhaps half
of the original crowd of more than 800. This does not sound like a big
number in a city of 10 million, but as a matter of fact it was amongst
the biggest oppositional demonstrations of the recent years, next only
to Nazi demonstrations of 4th of November and 1st of May and 7th of
November demonstrations of the Communist Party. One should also take in
account that confrontation (with both police and Nazis) was to be
expected, and that it was a working day with a cold weather down to -20
C (-4 F), all factors decreasing turnout. But whatever there are issues
with politics of the coalition, in terms of turnout and level of
confrontation 19th of January demonstration was a success in Moscow.
Around 7 PM 19th of January, people started to gather at Petrovskiy
boulevard, a section of “Boulevard ring” in center of Moscow. People
formed a long queue, as police searched everyone joining the action. As
loudspeakers were banned, little was heard of the speeches. Police had
allowed “passage” from this picket to the next at Griboyedov statue next
to Chistye Prudy metro station, however any slogans and banners were
banned. Demonstrators had no intentions to follow these orders, thin
police lines were promptly broken and a group of around 200
demonstrations went to move down the boulevard, scanning “Alerta
antifascista!”, “Get to the streets, reclaim the city!” and “ACAB!”. In
the front banner, there were names of dozens of Nazi victims of the
previous years. However due to bad coordination due to inexperience of
good part of the participators and lack of loudspeakers, remaining crowd
of 600+ was isolated from breakout group, and they were only let out
from the police cordon with small groups of 50 persons.
In Trubnaya square, breakout crowd ran to hundreds of OMON and regiments
of Army of Interior in riot gear. (In Russia there is a 200 000 strong
army not controlled by the ministry of defense but by the ministry of
interior affairs, they have their own aviation, tanks and artillery.
Back in the days it was under command of NKVD and responsible for
guarding GULAG system). This was an unequal match and banners were
unrolled, however cops were already pissed and they grabbed some people.
Eventually police managed to separate marchers to smaller groups, and
rest of the march towards second picket was rather uneventful – small
groups tricked towards Chistye Prudy and occasionally scanned slogans.
There security group of the demonstration ran to badly disguised Nazi
scout, who was promptly taken to hostage for the rest of the action.
Nazis threw some smoke bombs and firecrackers to the crowd, but in
general, unlike cops, they had little success in sabotaging action.
Original purpose was to screen speech Stanislav made in a demonstration
in November of 2008 in Chistye Prudy (available here:
http://www.youtube.com/v/oNojZ5hh03Y) , but police arrested projector,
screen and the sound system. Thus committee decided to read out their
statement, wearing masks – police did not liked this, and in middle of
the speech they interfered, attempting to grab megaphone and speaker. In
the following confrontation, speaker was dearrested but crowd got
furious, and an attempt was made to organise an illegal march by the
boulevard towards Kitay Gorod metro station. Hower this was cut short by
OMON after 200 meters, what followed was a melee of truncheons and gas
in another side and snowballs and ice in another. More people were
grabbed, putting a number of overall arrests to more than 50 – however
crowd refused to disperse until everyone was to be released, and most of
the people were released soon and everyone during the same night, most
were filed misdemeanor charges but no felonies.
More early during the day, while crowd was gathering at Petrovskiy
Boulevard, a group of autonomous anti-fascists attacked house of Russian
Union of Writers with stones and smoke bombs. In a leaflet which was
left at the spot, it was explained that house of Union was targeted as
it had several times provided premises for benefit events of Nazi
organization “Russian verdict”, which supports Tikhonov and Khasis and
such Nazi serial killers as Arthur Ryno and Pavel Skachevskiy, who
recently confessed random murders of 20 migrants in Moscow. This
anonymous group uploaded a statement to indymedia
(http://ru.indymedia.org/newswire/display/23252/index.php), where it
explained that “goal of the action was to cause material damage to house
and thus it was non-violent”, in good traditions of Russian
insurrectional pacifism.
There is a huge amount of photos and video footage of the Moscow events
online, perhaps most comprehensive video is this by grani.tv:
http://grani-tv.ru/entries/1002/
More videos are available here: http://tupikin.livejournal.com/463103.html
Some nice photos:
http://www.novayagazeta.ru/news/747845.html
http://mixedb.livejournal.com/842098.html
http://ru.indymedia.org/newswire/display/23241/index.php,
http://4brokenheart.livejournal.com/326206.html
http://keltea.livejournal.com/862844.html
http://visualrian.ru/images?text=%D0%A1%D1%82%D0%B5%D0%BD%D0%B8%D0%BD
Short summary of actions in other cities
Bryansk, Russia
Anti-fascists gathered at a memorial action in eternal fire.
http://ru.indymedia.org/newswire/display/23230/index.php
Cheboksary, Russia
A banner drop in one of the main streets
http://www.avtonom.org/node/6917
Chelyabinsk, Russia
Around 50 people joined memorial action at Kirovke 17th of January.
http://ru.indymedia.org/newswire/display/23214/index.php
Irkutsk, Russia
Anti-fascists marched:
http://ru.indymedia.org/newswire/display/23242/index.php
Izhevsk, Russia
Food Not Bombs organized a memorial action.
http://ru.indymedia.org/newswire/display/23219/index.php
Ivanovo, Russia
Illegal march was organized
http://www.avtonom.org/node/6857
Kazan, Russia
A photo exhibition and presentation was organized.
http://www.avtonom.org/node/6937
Khabarovsk, Russia
A banner drop at the central park.
http://ru.indymedia.org/newswire/display/23220/index.php
Kirov, Russia
Anti-fascists gathered at the memorial of victims of political repressions.
http://ru.indymedia.org/newswire/display/23260/index.php
Murmansk, Russia
A memorial action at drama theater.
http://ru.indymedia.org/newswire/display/23234/index.php
Nizhni Novgorod, Russia
Around hundred people gathered at a memorial picket to Freedomsquare
http://ru.indymedia.org/newswire/display/23257/index.php.
Novosibirsk, Russia
Anarchists and anti-fascists made a memorial wall in metro:
http://ru.indymedia.org/newswire/display/23243/index.php
Petrozavodsk, Russia
60 people gathered at memorial event and were harassed by cops
http://ru.indymedia.org/newswire/display/23232/index.php
Omsk, Russia
30 people marched and gathered at memorial event at eternal fire.
http://ru.indymedia.org/newswire/display/23247/index.php
Samara, Russia
30 people gathered at a memorial event in victory park.
http://ru.indymedia.org/newswire/display/23225/index.php
Sotchi, Russia
A memorial event at eternal fire
http://ru.indymedia.org/newswire/display/23231/index.php
St.Petersburg, Russia
19th of January there was an illegal street exhibition organized at the
outer wall of museum of political history
(http://avtonom.org/en/node/6907). 20th of January anarchists and other
anti-fascists organized an illegal demonstration at the Marat street
(http://piter.indymedia.org/node/8958).
Ufa, Russia
Police banned demonstration announced by Autonomous Action. Eventually
anarchists and anti-fascists handled leaflets and gathered at the
eternal fire.
http://ru.indymedia.org/newswire/display/23249/index.php
Yekaterinburg, Russia
Twenty activists of Oborona, Antifa, Food not Bombs and Movement Against
Violence marched. http://ru.indymedia.org/newswire/display/23230/index.php
Minsk, Belarus
A banner drop at the Mogilevskaya street
http://ru.indymedia.org/newswire/display/23218/index.php
Athens, Greece
Leaflets were spread and banners dropped at Athens polytechnic.
http://ru.indymedia.org/newswire/display/23239/index.php
Samos, Greece
A movie screening and info event on situation in Russia
http://ru.indymedia.org/newswire/display/23239/index.php
Helsinki, Finland
Around 80 people marched, there was a minor fight with local Nazis
http://piter.indymedia.org/ru/node/8938
Paris, France
50 people gathered to a meeting at fountain of innocents. Later in the
evening there was also an
unsanctioned march.
http://ru.indymedia.org/newswire/display/23229/index.php
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OP5JQ49WMa0
Riga, Latvia
“Direct action”-group picketed Russian embassy
http://ru.indymedia.org/newswire/display/23251/index.php
Cracow, Poland
Russian embassy was picketed
http://ru.indymedia.org/newswire/display/23246/index.php
Warsaw, Poland
A picket at Russian embassy
http://ru.indymedia.org/newswire/display/23240/index.php
Chernigov, Ukraine
40 people joined illegal march
http://ru.indymedia.org/newswire/display/23236/index.php
Kiev, Ukraine
50 anti-fascists gathered at the Russian embassy
http://ru.indymedia.org/newswire/display/23226/index.php
Odessa, Ukraine
A memorial event at the consul of Russian Federation
http://ru.indymedia.org/newswire/display/23250/index.php
Simferopol, Ukraine
A 50 meter memorial graffiti was made by local anti-fascists
http://ru.indymedia.org/newswire/display/23221/index.php
Sumy, Ukraine
Local anarchists organized a memorial action
http://ru.indymedia.org/newswire/display/23248/index.php
