A-Infos (en) Russia, Avtonom: Shots, bombs and heating lines: "Trends of order and chaos", episode 140 (ca, de, it, pt, tr)[machine translation]

January 19: not only memory ---- 15 years ago, on January 19, 2009, 
pistol shots were heard in the center of Moscow. These shots killed two 
people. These were Stas Markelov, a lawyer and human rights activist, 
and Nastya Baburova, a journalist and anarchist, a member of Autonomous 
Action. ---- Stas and Nastya were killed by Nazis from the Combat 
Organization of Russian Nationalists (BORN) because they participated in 
the anti-fascist movement. This was one of the last widely known murders 
of anti-fascists in Russia, but before this it happened systematically. 
In many cases, the killings occurred on the orders of the authorities, 
or at least with their clear connivance. However, in the end, the 
Kremlin practically destroyed both the anti-fascist and nationalist 
movements: for example, the killers of Stas and Nastya (Nikita Tikhonov 
and Evgenia Khasis) received long prison sentences. However, their 
curators continue to occupy high positions or serve as Kremlin 
propagandists.

Since then, every year on January 19, rallies of memory and solidarity 
are held in different cities and countries . They often include film 
screenings and discussions related to Dmitry Petrov. This is a Russian 
anarchist and anti-fascist who died in battles against Putin's army near 
Bakhmut. This connection is not accidental. It was the murder of Stas 
and Nastya (although, of course, not only it) that marked the final turn 
of post-Soviet Russia to the quasi-fascist state that it is now. The 
elimination of political opponents on both the left and the right (often 
at the hands of their opponents) paved the way for the authoritarian 
regime of Putin and his gang. The annexation of Crimea in 2014 and the 
full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022 are in many ways a continuation 
of those shots fired in Moscow in January 2009.

Nowadays, Russian anarchists and anti-fascists much more often have to 
confront not the Nazis as such, but the militarized Russian state . And 
the Kremlin turned out to be a much more dangerous enemy than 
subcultural street fascists.

Ryazan forest
By the way, speaking about Russian anti-fascists. The trial of the 
murder in the Ryazan forest is coming to an end .

On January 10, in the Ryazan Regional Court, the jury found Maxim 
Ivankin, previously convicted in the Network case, guilty of murder. Let 
us recall that several years ago, a rather random group of people 
(including Ivankin) received up to 18 years in prison in an absurd case 
about the never-existing "anarchist terrorist organization Network." 
After this, at the beginning of 2020, a text appeared in the publication 
Meduza that some defendants in the Network case may be involved in a 
double murder in a forest near Ryazan.

The publication received a great response, soon the Investigative 
Committee opened a criminal case, and Maxim Ivankin found himself in the 
dock. The publications "Mediazona" and "NeMoskva Speaks" analyzed the 
evidence of the prosecution in sufficient detail.

This story leaves us with ambivalent impressions. On the one hand, there 
is a lot of evidence; it cannot be ruled out that Ivankin could have 
participated in this murder or at least been at the crime scene. Ivankin 
himself denies that he was ever in Ryazan before the investigative 
experiment, but his words are refuted by numerous unrelated witnesses.

But there is practically no direct evidence against Ivankin. Let us 
recall that earlier a friend of Meduza informant Alexei Poltavets, who 
left for Ukraine , told the media that Poltavets told her that he alone 
committed the double murder, without Ivankin.

It should be noted that during the investigation into the murder case in 
the Ryazan forest, Ivankin was clearly subjected to extrajudicial 
pressure (in simple terms - torture, physical or psychological), and the 
judge at the trial carefully ignored this.

In general, the court did not establish that Ivankin was definitely 
involved in the murder. But he was clearly at the scene of the murder. 
Until it is clarified what actually happened and why, we believe that it 
cannot be supported.

In any case, whether Ivankin was involved in the murder or not, this 
story should not cast a shadow on the other people convicted in the 
Network case. Convicted in an absurd political case to huge terms of 
imprisonment. We will continue to support them, and we encourage 
everyone to do the same .

In other news about repressions: the Investigative Committee opened a 
criminal case on "fake news" about the army based on political hatred 
against the anarchist and former defendant in the "Moscow case" 
Vladislav Barabanov .  A criminal case was opened against Vladislav due 
to five posts in his Telegram channel, which he published in March 2 
022. Among them are videos of Ukrainian protests in occupied Melitopol 
and the shelling of Chernigov by Russian troops, which killed 47 people. 
Fortunately, Vladislav is outside Russia and Putin's cops are too short 
to get hold of him.

Finally, the sending of the leader of the "Left Front" Sergei Udaltsov 
to a pre-trial detention center causes sad laughter . Udaltsov is a true 
Stalinist and imperialist. His wife is a State Duma deputy, he himself 
actively supported the invasion of Ukraine and hinted to the Kremlin as 
often as he could that I was one of them. It didn't help - before 
Putin's next elections, demonstrative repressions are needed, and 
Udaltsov was still arrested again for posts in support of Ufa armchair 
Marxists and Donbass war veterans who joined their circle: they, in 
turn, were screwed almost a year ago and accused of "creating a 
terrorist communities." In general, "Comrade Stalin, a monstrous mistake 
has occurred."

Finally, on January 12, Russian authorities recognized the publication 
Kholod as a foreign agent. This is, in principle, ordinary news, but it 
is funny that this is happening against the backdrop of numerous 
evidence of the degradation of the heating infrastructure in Russia.

Here and there heating mains break, radiators burst, entire 
neighborhoods are left without heating. People warm themselves by the 
fires. But no one has even started bombing Russia on a large scale yet 
(unlike, by the way, Ukraine). In principle, it is not surprising: the 
priorities of the Putin regime, to put it mildly, do not lie in the area 
of real development of the country. If money is spent on weapons and 
imperial ambitions, there is no time to repair heating systems. All that 
remains is to declare the cold an agent of the corrupted West.

Ashes of world fires
The war in Ukraine is stuck in a positional stalemate. Unfortunately, 
this does not prevent the emergence of new armed conflicts and military 
escalation in other parts of the world.

On January 12, American planes carried out dozens of bomb attacks on 
targets in Yemen , and continued with missiles the next day. This is a 
reaction to the fact that the Houthis (who control Yemen almost 
completely) have been attacking ships in the Red Sea for several months 
now, and this is the main trade route between Europe and Asia, the 
modern Silk Road. Global business is suffering huge losses, and the 
United States is trying to stabilize a shaky system in which it plays 
the role of "world policeman."

The question arises, of course, why the hell the Houthis themselves 
needed this escalation. Formally, they say that this is a type of action 
of solidarity with Gaza, which Israel is ironing out. But where is Yemen 
and where is Gaza: there are more than a thousand kilometers between 
them. So why do the Houthis need these problems? The answer is obvious: 
the Houthis are a Shiite movement, and they are entirely supported by 
Shiite Iran. Iran, in turn, benefits from any anti-American movement and 
any rustle in the Middle East that does not affect Iran itself.

Now the United States simply bombed the Houthis. Obviously, this alone 
will not stop the attacks. In order, so to speak, to finally resolve the 
issue and calm down global business, the United States will have to 
organize a full-scale ground operation in Yemen, similar to Afghanistan 
or Desert Storm in Iraq. There is a high chance that this will end in a 
senseless bogging down of American and NATO troops in the Arabian desert 
and mountains. The inevitable civilian casualties will only fan the 
flames of guerrilla warfare against the invaders.

Of course, this is very beneficial for Iran. Despite all the sanctions, 
he continues to be a powerful player in global politics. Many people 
often underestimate this country, but let us remember that 87 million 
people live in Iran - that is, in fact, it is a huge country, only 
slightly inferior in size to Russia. At the same time, the population 
there is much younger. And Iran has very serious local imperialist views 
on its closest neighbors, but in general the goal of this state is quite 
officially the world Islamic revolution.

European and American sanctions have naturally brought Iran closer to 
Russia, and now Ukrainian cities are being attacked by Iranian drones. 
That is, Orthodox Putin and the ayatollahs are now strong military 
allies. So far, a direct military confrontation between NATO and this 
new "axis" has not yet occurred, but Ukraine is using NATO assistance to 
defend against Russian aggression, and NATO is already bombing Iran's 
Houthi allies. And somewhere on the horizon looms China, which, 
naturally, has good political relations with Russia and Iran, but at the 
same time close economic ties with the so-called "Western world."

The scattered embers of armed conflicts are burning brighter and their 
escalation into a world war is looking more and more real. Will the 
scattered embers of self-organized initiatives flare up in the same way, 
will they turn into something new that will grow from the ashes of world 
wars? We'll see.

I would like to end with a quote from material published in the Czech 
journal of radical theory Contradictions. This is part of a large set of 
interviews with anarchists from different countries about the war in 
Ukraine. Many of them are on opposite positions; we do not agree with 
all theses, but this is normal: anarchism should not be dogmatic. So 
here's what Zosia Brom, a former editor at Freedom Press and organizer 
of the anarchist book fair in London, writes:

"What is sure to influence events for a long time to come is the very 
core of real anarchist politics: accepting things as they are, listening 
to people directly affected by events, doing everything possible to help 
others in their struggle against oppression, making practical 
"contribute as much as possible. If we do all this, we have a chance to 
become a significant force. If not, then we will turn (or remain) into a 
club of fans of old books."

Well that's all for today! We remind you that in Trends in Order and 
Chaos, members of Autonomous Action and other authors give anarchist 
assessments of current events. Listen to us on  YouTube ,  SoundCloud 
and other platforms, visit our website  avtonom.org , subscribe to our 
e-mail newsletter!

Issue prepared by Mani

https://avtonom.org/news/vystrely-bomby-i-teplotrassy-trendy-poryadka-i-haosa-epizod-140
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