Anastasia "Skat" Baburova murdered

russia / ukraine / belarus | anarchist movement | news report Wednesday January 21, 2009 15:50 by Avtonomnoe Deistvie - Autonomous Action

Actions to commemorate Stas and Nastya around Russia

Our friend and comrade Skat was murdered today in Moscow, shot to head by an assassin. She was studying in evening line of journalist faculty of Moscow State University. She worked a while in "Izvestiya", but left and worked as a freelancer. She joined Autonomous Action a day before she got murdered. Inside the movement, Nastya got well along with everyone.

Anastasia "Skat" Baburova

The assassin was not after her - he was after advocate Stanislav Markelov, another good friend and comrade. We do not know who was there to kill Stas - it could have been associates of some war criminals he put in prison, it could be connected to some corporate crimes, it could be Nazis, many of whom Stas put in prison as well. The list of Stas' achievements is so long that it will take a couple of days to gather all of them into an obituary - and the list of his enemies is even longer. But we know for sure, that Nastya had the bad luck to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. The assassin shot her in the head as well, either to eliminate a witness, or in order to escape - some witnesses have stated that Nastya attempted to arrest the assassin. Stas died on the spot, but Nastya died in hospital a few hours afterwards.

Nastya was studying in evening line of the faculty of journalism at Moscow State University. She worked a while on "Izvestiya", but had left and was working as a freelancer. During the last few months she wrote for the critical paper "Novaya Gazeta", mostly about the far right.

Nastya was an anarchist and was involved in numerous activist projects. She was involved in anti-repression issues, such as solidarity actions in Moscow for repressed French activists Ivan and Bruno, and later last year in solidarity work for Tarnac 9. Last year she was actively involved in attempts to defend a dormitory in Yasniy Passage, inhabited by refugees from conflict regions of the Caucasus, against the violent takeover of the premises by the UFSIN (Administration of Federal Service for Execution of Punishment, that is the Russian federal prison administration). Nastya was arrested in that action. She also joined the Rainbow Keepers' protest camp last summer in Sasovo in the Ryazan region, and campaigned against police brutality in the spring of 2008. She also traveled to the European Social Forum in Malmö in September 2008. She was co-organising the alternative media section at the Russian Anticapitalism-2008 conference. Nastya also helped in work with the latest issue (#30) of the journal Avtonom. She joined Autonomous Action a day before she was murdered. Inside the movement, Nastya got well along with everyone.

Nastya was into physical sports such as parachute jumping and she was also well trained in martial arts. She never went around unarmed, but her knife was no match for a gun.

She was a positive person of exceptional spirit. She will be missed by parents, friends and comrades from all around Russia and Ukraine. As she was from Sevastopol, she is likely to be buried there.

She had a blog at http://file-028.livejournal.com/
[Report dated 19.01.09, taken from the Autonomous Action website and edited by Anarkismo.net]