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EASTERN EUROPE INDEXSUBSECTIONSCZECH REPUBLIC | RUSSIA | UKRAINE Communitas Main Index
Reports of the terrorist attack on the American embassy in Nairobi last Friday were horrible to read. An enormous explosion dismembered passers-by, incinerated dozens of people in their seats in nearby buses, blew roofs off buildings, toppled trees, set cars on fire, and left offices as a honey-comb of burned-out rubble with bodies buried inside. Over 200 people were killed in the explosion, more than 5,000 injured, mainly by flying glass. MORE.. Paul Polanski August 1998
(see main article)
Whilst everyone, and in particular the experts at the IMF and their feudal court of liberal economists, is spouting forth about global happiness and the triumph of capitalism, everything possible is done to hide the human misery and the chaotic situation the world economy finds itself in. MORE.. translingvoj 17th Sept 1998
Trouble Makers in the Firing Line Since early May the Ukrainian security services have been intimidating and harassing the anarchist initiative group Tigra Negra based in Kiev and the radical ecologist movement Rainbow Keepers. The intimidation started just before the meeting in Kiev of the summit of the European Bank for Regional Development. Huge sums of money had been spent cleaning up the city centre and on luxury hotels or buying in buses for the use of the thousands of financiers who would be there. MORE.. translingvoj June 1998
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RUSSIAN SECRET POLICE SEARCHES AND ARRESTS ANARCHISTSSo far there is information of at least two searches held in Moscow on February 2 held in flats of Larisa Schiptsova and Vlad Tupikin. After a search was held in Larisa's apartment for a few hours she was arrested and transferred to Lefortovo (KGB) prison in Moscow. At this point there is no further information on the details of her arrest (there are reasons to believe that she is charged at least with possession of drugs). The search held at Vlad's place lasted for 7 hours, as a results of this his computer, printer, letters for the last 3 years, all photos, diaries and notebooks, floppy disks and materials of the first 2 and an upcoming issue of Utopia magazine were confiscated. During the search the following violations were registered by Vlad: the search was held simultaneously in different rooms, so there was no chance of thorough supervision, "witnesses" invited for the search participated in the search together with the officers, the carried bags in and out, went out to talk, etc. (Of which Vlad made an official complaint.) A total of 5 people were making the search, but only 2 are put down in the protocol. The searchers registered that they found "solid stuff wrapped in white paper" and "a small glass bottle of liquid". In response to that Vlad filed a written statement that he has reasons to believe that some things and papers found in his flat may have been put there during the search. Then Vlad was taken to the FSB prison in Lefortovo, where investigation dept. of KGB is located. He was interrogated as for his familiarity with Larisa, Maria and Gennady and Larisa's attitude and statements concerning Krasnodar governor Nikolai Kondratenko who is a certified Nazi and anti-Semite. One of the investigators who dropped in said that he "would like to have more information on Larisa Schiptsova". "Your treatment will depend on that," he warned. Interrogation lasted for more than 2 hours, but fortunately Vlad was let free and warned that representatives of Krasnodar procurator's office will further interrogate him next week (the "Krasnodar case" is investigated by them, while the Moscow searches were conducted by FSB officers). So far Vlad is considered a witness in this case. FSB planned to conducts more interrogations on February 3 (Larisa's relatives, one anarchist who happened to be in her place at the time of the search). Please, spread this information as wide as possible, so that it makes further solidarity campaign easier to organize. SOME BROADER CONTEXT There is a big discussion in media and society of the dangers of extremism. Nevertheless, on January 31 about 200 Russian Nazis marched through the North of Moscow while police stopped and watched. Police chief later made public apologies to those Nazis whose documents were checked (this was registered by a TV crew). Everybody's is talking about putting a ban on Nazi parties, but nothing is actually done to stop the spread of Nazi propaganda. One of the obstacles to the "official" anti-extremist campaign is the refusal of the parliament to adopt anti- extremist laws or even a notion of what fascism is. On Feb 2 Yeltsin accepted resignation of the genera procurator of Russia "for health reasons" and signed a decree which outlines what one should consider "extremism", "national or religious hatred and "extremist publication" to be. (However bad the general procurator was, a leading Russian pro- capitalist paper writes, he would have disagreed with introducing these notions through a presidential decree rather than a federal law adopted by the parliament.) Throughout the last couple of years we also witnessed several cases of terrorist attacks coming from "the left" (Stalinists) - none of them lead to any casualties, most of them targeted monuments of Russian tsars, although were politically motivated. One of the young Stalinists was given 4 years recently in prison for blowing a memorial to the tsar's family, a few others are still being interrogated. Since the origin of the terrorist groups is vague in some cases, there were cases of searches and interrogations of former and acting anarchists in Moscow. There is increased KGB activities in different fields recently (from "fighting economic crime" to monitoring everybody's e- mail), while at the same time there are attempts to make laws even stricter - soon any picket outside a nuclear power plant may be officially called a "terrorist attack". This report is based on Vlad's story with some additional comments by the translator, Mikhail Tsovma. You can request further information from the following addresses: koalabear@glasnet.ru - Mikhail Tsovma aln@glasnet.ru - Alisa Nikoulina AnPress@mail.admiral.ru - Alexander Maishev March 1999 |