A-Infos (en) Russia, Avtonom: Arkanar is no longer fiction: "Trends of order and chaos", episode 151 (ca, de, it, pt, tr)[machine translation]

Manipulation of fear ---- Today's episode will begin, of course, with 
the events in Crocus City, where unarmed people were killed by 
attackers. According to official data (at the time of writing), 143 
people died, including children. ---- We have already written in our 
editorial analysis that the security forces, whose number has constantly 
increased during Putin's reign, and whose powers have constantly 
increased under the pretext of fighting terrorism, have proven to be 
unable not only to prevent a real terrorist act, but also to promptly 
react to him. After all, if pacifism is equated with extremism, then you 
can easily imprison people for posts on VKontakte, and then, suddenly, 
out of nowhere, bam - there are real extremist terrorists.

By the way, North American intelligence warned about the impending 
terrorist attack, the response was the indignation of our Don Reba, that 
is, President Putin, that all this was a lie, hype and provocation. And 
when it turned out that it was not a lie, the reaction of the Russian 
authorities was "Yeah, they knew everything!" So, they are the customers!"

Well, as expected, the entire team of propagandists serving the Russian 
authorities, together with volunteer pro-government bloggers, began to 
unanimously write that the terrorist attack was organized by the 
Ukrainian special services. On March 23, in her Telegram channel, 
Margarita Simonyan wrote: "It is already clear that everything was 
orchestrated by non-brothers. Finding performers in chats is a piece of 
cake. And then the question: did the dog in the embroidered shirt break 
loose from the chain or was he given such a command? In any case, it's 
the trainer's fault." Or, the full post can be found at the link, I will 
quote only the main thing: "We already know the names of the performers. 
We have already seen their faces and know what they sing during 
interrogations. (We do not publish it so as not to interfere with the 
investigation.) And it immediately becomes obvious why yesterday the 
American media shouted in unison that it was ISIS.... So, so. This is 
not ISIS. These are crests. And the fact that just yesterday, even 
before the arrests, even before the names and names of the perpetrators, 
Western intelligence services began to convince the population that it 
was ISIS - this is what set the cap on this thief on fire. This is not 
ISIS. This is a well-coordinated team of several other, also widely 
known, abbreviations."

By the way, how would the editor-in-chief of Russia Today react to 
Armenians being called a racist word with the same letter x as she calls 
Ukrainians? Why does she think that such words can be used towards 
Ukrainians? The question is, of course, rhetorical, but this vocabulary 
from the Russian propagandist clearly demonstrates who the fascist 
really is.

Security forces from the Gestapo
For example, let's take the security forces again. They showed how 
terrorist suspects are tortured. Neo-Nazi Rasskazov offered to play a 
knife that was used to cut off the ear of one of the detainees; 
according to him, the knife was from his subscriber. Moreover, on the 
sleeve of the security officer who cut off his ear, a "black sun" patch 
was noticed, and this is not an accident.

Here RIA Novosti showed an attempt to detain an alleged member of the 
RDK corps. What do we see on the back of the FSB soldier? A patch with a 
slogan stylized as runes and a swastika stylized as a Kolovrat. 
Moreover, about the political activist Andrei Zhvakin, who died during 
this detention, the press secretary of the RDK said that Andrei had 
nothing to do with the corps.

As for those detained on suspicion of mass murder in Crocus City, since 
their testimony was obtained under torture, doubts arise as to how much 
they can be trusted. A person in pain is usually ready to tell not the 
truth, but what they want to hear from him.

Yes, I say "human" and not "non-human" because by dehumanizing others, 
you can very quickly dehumanize yourself. Actually, what they tried to 
dehumanize Russians was, no, not the evil Western intelligence services, 
but the Russian security forces and propagandists, who took the path of 
normalizing torture and bullying. Of course, it was difficult not to 
know about the use of torture, but the torture of suspects in the attack 
on Crocus City is shown publicly, and the testimony given under torture 
is presented as worthy of complete confidence. What's next? Public 
executions?

All because of the intelligentsia
Propagandists are doing their best to prepare the ground for justifying 
testimony obtained through torture. Now I'll quote what the journalist 
Yasinsky writes, who, of course, is not Solovyov or Simonyan in terms of 
his importance, so the chimney is lower and the smoke is thinner, but at 
one time he was interesting to many anti-fascists because he wrote about 
the Zapatistas and spoke fascinatingly about the partisans and leftist 
movement in Latin America. He considers himself a true leftist and a 
true humanist.

At the same time, while denouncing dictators like Pinochet or Videla, he 
praises dictator Castro and endlessly licks Putin. The full text of his 
justification for torture can be found at the link, and I will quote 
passages, so: "Unpleasant footage of the treatment of detained 
terrorists by security forces (considering both what they did and the 
fact that it is absolutely obvious that the "suspects" are proven guilty 
) is part of the necessary hard answer. If he sobers up the next 
scumbags preparing for new missions, who do not understand other 
arguments, with fear of retribution, lives will be saved."

Seriously? Will lives be saved from testimony obtained through torture? 
Is this really true?

Yasinsky calls human rights fighters professional hypocrites, but he 
himself is a professional hypocrite, he is a journalist, so he knows how 
to work with information. In the next post, he is indignant at how one 
can compare torture in Pinochet's dungeons and the actions of Russian 
security forces. Russian security forces torture the right people and 
whoever they need. Although he, of course, is against torture and does 
not condone it, "this is completely different." And his words that 
"probably, a new territorial organization of citizens is needed for 
their constant prompt collection of information about any strangers, 
oddities and suspicious actions." This, in his opinion, is not at all a 
call for denunciations and informing, but again "completely different."

Well, what is this if not hypocrisy? Or is this also "completely 
different"? Yasinsky actually loves to accuse the intelligentsia of 
hypocrisy, double standards and manipulation. Quote: "The point here is 
not at all about criticizing the Russian government on this or that 
occasion, but about constantly pinning any abominations on it, simply at 
the level of the established intellectual tradition. There is one 
unsolved topic in the defense of human rights - the protection of our 
consciousness from malicious manipulation by beautiful slogans, up to 
its complete destruction." Well, a little more, and he will write "Death 
of the intelligentsia!", although no, he won't write it, this is already 
too direct a fascist quote.

But the main thing is that the desired effect is obtained, it is worth 
seeing the comments: "Lately I have begun to understand correctly the 
phrase "lousy intelligentsia," "I agree, for me personally these people 
are just enemies, and unhealthy in the head, and they are all somehow 
tied to activities of foreign intelligence services", "How to build a 
defense against this civilized intellectual heresy? And most 
importantly, by what means to defeat it? Come on, the means have already 
been suggested. And justified.

Arkanar
When I was a teenager, I read the book by the Strugatsky brothers, "It's 
Hard to Be a God." In it, the story takes place in a certain state of 
Arkanar on a distant, distant planet. There, the later Middle Ages were 
about to turn into the Renaissance, but then a conservative turn 
occurred. Moreover, in the way it is described, there are Easter eggs 
not only about the Inquisition and the fight against heresy, but also 
about the advent of fascism.

In Arkanar, "smart people and bookworms" are being persecuted, that is, 
the scientific and cultural intelligentsia. And there are also Easter 
eggs about the era of Stalinism, because the book was written at the end 
of the so-called "thaw". As attributes of medieval cruelty, executions 
and torture in Arkanar are carried out publicly.

So, Russian reality reminds me more and more of Arkanar. Probably, many, 
if you haven't read the book, have come across the phrase of the 
anti-hero Don Reba: "We don't need smart people. We need the faithful."

On March 30, Avtonom published a large material about the new trial of 
mathematician Azat Miftakhov. And also his last word. Azat is being 
judged, of course, not because he is too smart, but because he is so 
smart that he is an anarchist and cannot be loyal and submissive to the 
authorities. It seems incredible that a man who has already been 
released from prison is immediately given a new sentence, but he is 
still full of fortitude and strives to inspire those who remain free.

These are very important words, I hope you can read or listen to them in 
their entirety. And I will give only the beginning: "During the years of 
my imprisonment in the previous criminal case, I never became inflamed 
with love for the state - and here I am again in the dock. Now I am 
being tried for what the security forces wanted to call a justification 
of terrorism, falsifying evidence in the same way as it was 5 years ago. 
The obviousness and impudence of such falsification does not bother them 
at all, and even plays into their hands. They seem to be telling us: "We 
can imprison anyone, and it doesn't cost us anything."

We see the same impudence in numerous cases of the use of inhuman 
torture by regime guards from the FSB, when these guards do not care 
that their shameful deeds become public knowledge. On the contrary, 
these deeds are displayed as a matter of pride. In this way, the state 
reveals its terrorist essence, which anarchists pointed out before the 
last presidential elections, taking to the streets with the slogan "The 
FSB is the main terrorist."

Now what we said then has become obvious not only in our country, but 
throughout the world. Now we see how the entire foreign and domestic 
policy of the state[leads]to a conveyor belt of murders and 
intimidation. While fake witnesses prove my justification for terrorism, 
calls for mass killings of those who disagree with state policy are 
heard with might and main on federal channels. We see that the state, 
while verbally proclaiming the fight against terrorism, in reality seeks 
to maintain its monopoly on terror.

However, no matter how the security officers try to intimidate civil 
society, even in these dark times we see people who find the courage to 
resist the terror that has spilled beyond the borders of the state. 
Risking not only their freedom, but also their lives, with their actions 
they awaken the conscience of our society, the lack of which we feel so 
acutely now, and their resilience to the very end becomes an example for 
all of us."

Azat Miftakhov was sentenced to 4 years in prison.

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 social 
networks and e-mail newsletter.

The issue was prepared by NinaT

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