FROM KNIVES TO EXPLOSIVES. THE NEW WAVE OF NAZI TERROR IN RUSSIA

Infoshop News
Jan 17 2007

An article by Vlad Tupikin about the murders of antifascists.

Last Wednesday, Dec. 27, 2006, the murder case of 20 year old
antifascist Alexander Ryuchin was taken to court. On the 16th of
April, 2006, (just nine days before his twentieth birthday in fact)
he was slaughtered in the suburbs of Moscow, on his way to a concert
of punk-hardrock music, popular among young Moscow antifascists. A
few skinheads armed with knives attacked Sasha and his friend Egor.

Actually there was no fight – there was a murder.

Three attackers have been detained, Nazi paraphernalia and literature
have been found it their apartments. Another three of them have gone
into hiding. It may seem that everything is clear. But don’t hurry to
make your judgements. The case has been brought to court not under
the murder clause. The detainees, two members of Slavonic Union –
Vasily Reutov and Andrey Anziferov, as well as Alexander Shitov, a
member of the group "Format 18," are to be charged with "hooliganism"
conducted by a group of individuals through a deliberate collusion
or organized group (Art. 213. 2 CC RF), "Wilfull infliction of light
injury" (Art. 115 CC RF) and for "beatings" (Ñò. 116 ÓÊ ÐÔ). And the
actual murder case has been sidetracked to a separate procedure,
with the accused being Alexander Parinov and Nikita Tikhonov, who
are in hiding, and one unidentified person.

The attorney Stanislav Markelov, representing the mother of the
deceased, Tatyanan Petrovna Ryukhina, has informed a reporter from
the REGNUM agency: "Everything is being done to minimize the level of
social harm of Reutov’s, Anziferov’s and Shitov’s actions. There is a
pretty cynical, but working rule: if there is corpse there is a case
for ‘Murder.’ And I’m very concerned, that the murder of an antifascist
by right wing radicals becomes an exclusion from this rule."

Another similar abnormality is that the case stemming from the
murder of another 20 year old antifascist form Saint Petersburg,
Timur Kacharava, still hasn’t gone to trial. He was also slaughtered
by the followers of extreme right wing views, who attacked him and his
friend Maxim on the 13th of November, 2005, in the very city centre
of Saint Petersburg, near the shop "Bukvoed," on Ligovsky Avenue.

It’s a busy place, where tourist buses leaving for Finland park,
and right next door is the Moscow train station. Again there was no
fight. The fascists rushed upon him, stabbing him several times with
knives. Timur received one wound to the neck that proved fatal.

The perpetrators of this widely publicized crime last year were
already detained in December 2005. The governor Valentina Matvienko
and the speaker of the Federation Council Sergey Mironov were making
declarations about the Nazi character of the murder and about the
need to combat the display of xenophobia in the capital city of
northern Russia. However the case is dragging along, and the Petersburg
antifascists are starting to believe it will be smothered completely,
with the state charging the detainees only with hooliganism, and
limiting the sentence to an insignificant period, if not suspending
it altogether.

And finally one more event, very recent. On Friday, 22 December,
in the south-eastern part of Moscow, in Lyublino, a home-made bomb
exploded in the entrance of an apartment house. On the wall near the
bomb was a swastika. The can containing the explosives was hidden
beneath a radiator, and apparently the bomb was activated by wires
running from the explosives to a board with an offensive nationalist
inscription written on it: "The residents of the flat … are black…"

The bomb, or rather the board, was detected in the apartment entrance
by 20 year old Tigran, who was living in that flat. He almost touched
the bomb, but saw the wires in time. He wasn’t able to see the bomb,
but decided to call the police. After a while the police detachment
arrived with a bomb expert and a bomb sniffing dog. While the police
were trying to clear the device it exploded.

This event has been reported in the press as the latest attack by
nationalists on non-Slavonic residents of Moscow. In their reporting,
a young Armenian man was able to escape becoming the next victim of
right wing extremists – a banal story for modern Moscow, no matter how
terrible it may seem. Quite banally the Office of the Public Prosecutor
initiated a criminal case on hooliganism – not murderous assault
…Tigran has been interrogated as a witness (not as a victim!).

However this event is not simple. Tigran was born in Moscow and
his parents are Muscovites (in the press there has already been an
absurd and false version in circulation, that he and his family have
only been living in Moscow for some ten years). He is not merely
"a young man from Caucasus." He is a Moscow Antifascist, in the past
one of the workers of the web site. Besides that, he
-just like his dead coevals Timur Kacharava adn Alexander Ryukhin –
is an admirer of punk-hardcore music.

To all appearances, Tigran should have been the third in the list
of murdered young antifa. His photograph has been posted in Nazi
web sites, he has been threatened several times, on the walls of the
construction site in front of his house one could see Swastikas, with
the words: "Tigran, say hello to Timur". Several times he has been
attacked in concerts, several times he bumped into people who looked
like boneheads (boneheads, in Russian bons, – are named by antifa which
are Nazi-skinheads, to avoid confusion with skinhead-antifascists,
who exists). Tigran is quite tough, he was always the winner in
any skirmish.

And now there was a bomb.

The politics, which is being ignored by the Office of Public
Prosecutor, through initiation of the criminal case on relatively
slight clauses in Tigran’s case, is being followed by the Federal
Defence Service of RF. While police were interrogating him as a
witness, the members of FSB visited his mother at home (the door was
damaged by the explosion, and it wasn’t closing) and, taking advantage
of her emotional shock, they confiscated things like: badges with the
crossed out swastika, stripes, but most importantly – the computer,
said Tigran.

Tigran even has a receipt of confiscation for the computer from the
FSB. All his materials for the term papers due before examinations
are now unavailable, something that has to be answered for in the
Institute.

I would like to emphasize: as far as I know, neither Timur Kacharava,
nor Alexander Ryukhin were members of any antifascist organisations,
they were just following their own antifascist views and were people
with active lifestyles. Timur was playing in an antifascist hardcore
group, on Sundays he was serving hot food to homeless people (homeless,
or, according to old militia terminology, bums, if anybody doesn’t know
yet – they are another object of hatred by young Nazis, along with
non-Slavs and representatives of several youth subcultures – punks,
rappers). Sasha was carrying out the Propaganda on his own: he was
designing on computer and distributing self-made antifascist stickers
(some such stickers were found in his pocket after his murder). Tigran
was also not a member of any organisation, but was helping an
antifascist web site, when he was not busy with his education.

To my question, whether Tigran was taking part in fights with Nazis,
he answered with affirmation: "Of course, if they are attacking.

Should we give up then?"

"Nazis made us antifascists, – a former member of antifa.ru
contitnues. – We all belong to some subcultures, to some groups,
whose representatives were clashing with fascist violence, and thus
becoming a target for their attacks. In one particular moment you
stop respecting yourself if you’re not answering blow for blow.

Especially if the police and the state as a whole don’t do anything
in general, in order to stop the street fascist danger".

"We, young antifascists, are sometimes being accused," Tigran
continues, "that, if we were not present, Nazis would already calm
down. Saying that we are acting as a teasing red flag to them. If
there would be no antifascists, say those who accuse us, the
street Nazi violence would come to naught. Everything is completely
opposite. Antifa was not present and obvious long enough and finally
they appeared, owing to the fact that Nazi violence was not stopping,
but rather getting larger and larger. And everybody knows that at
first Nazis were attacking people of non-Slavonic appearance and normal
representatives of youth subcultures, that were weaker. Atifa appeared
later – as a reaction, as a response of informal antifascist youth ".

"Look, – Tigran says, – fascists, when attacking, often pursue an
objective of mutilating or killing their victim, they use knives and
even guns. Antifas, when fighting with fascists, do not pursue an
objective of physical elimination or disabling. Fascists should just
understand, that they are also not eternal, they are not immortal,
they have to understand the value of human life, the value of every
individual. Maybe, small, underage Nazis, teens, who shaved their
heads because its cool, because now everybody will be afraid of
them, after getting it several times in the neck from normal guys,
will understand that there is nothing cool in being a fascist, –
no. Maybe at least some of them would stop."

Tigran thinks, however, that Nazis in general – as a violent street
movement – can’t be stopped by just fights. This is just containment,
the defence of youth subcultures against Nazis. "If they aren’t put
in jail, Nazi idiots following their sense of impunity will begin
doing much worse things. In their closed forums on the internet they
are already discussing the preparation of terrorist acts on markets
and even against state agencies, but haven’t decided yet whether to
make the newcomers carry it out or whether to take the responsibility
themselves". "How do you know?" I ask Tigran. "Our antifa hackers
have broken such forums several times," he answers. According to him,
on the same forums there are reference books on preparing and using
home-made explosives, same as the one that exploded in the entrance
of his apartment house.

"How do you feel after that event?" I asked him. "It’s ok. Friends
helped me to repair the door, they gathered some money. Now we need
money for a good attorney, we got to search for them. Now we have
something to be busy with. But somehow it seems that my door is just
about to be blown up."

Isn’t he afraid that the unexpected guests will come again? "They
were already here – the night after the explosion, when the door was
not closing. At four o’clock a ring on the remote entrance phone –
a young cheeky voice, saying a telegram. Later on, walking in the
entrance. Some of them were hiding their faces under a scarf or hood,
poking by the door, up along the staircase and down. The cat in my
flat pricked up its ears, I looked into the peephole, and I saw –
"guests". I asked my sister to call the police again, and rushed
to the staircase to chase them. But in home slippers you can’t
run fast, I couldn’t catch them up. And the police too, they came
with automatic-guns quite quickly, apparently they were stationed
somewhere close."

All this phantasmagoria is really taking place now in Moscow before New
Year. And blocking it from my mind, by blaming it on youthful rage,
a desire to kick up a row and a gang fight, is getting harder for me
personally. Knives were already in use. Now explosives are in use.

It’s absolutely obvious, that the question requires not only the
consideration of the police, but of the politics, and pedagogy too.

Is the official initiative of ~DNashy" enough that declared themselves
as a democratic antifascist movement? Obviously, not.

Politicians who don’t want to give up the antifascist theme to the
Kremlin and its political agents must think about how to react to
new circumstances avoiding the standard methods.

Fascism and xenophobia – it’s not merely another trump-card in an
election campaign in the marked pack of cards of the authorities,
it’s a social reality. Those who were not shown the truth of the
situation by the "Russian March," should have been made aware by the
Nazi terror in the streets. But apparently, opposition politicians,
coming in their cars to carry out discussions or joint demonstrations
with nationalists (whom they think to be "moderate") don’t take the
streets into account in general. The fact is these streets are being
controlled d by Nazis too.

Often this is ignored by the mass media too. In one of the respected
newspapers, I have been told that the statement of some antifa.ru
out there, regarding the murder of Sasha Ryukhin – is not yet an
informational couse. "Moreover, they should be certainly registered", –
said the editor looking strictly into my eyes. I don’t’ know, whether
they are registered or not. I know that in order to take the knife
and make a bomb, there is no need for registration. And Nazis know
it very well.

–Boundary_(ID_uFKqR+T8YzK+HajOmo+Hyg)–