Actions to commemorate Stas and Nastya around Russia

20th January in Moscow, St. Petersburg and Grozniy, various actions were organized to commemorate Stas Markelov and Anastasiya Baburova, murdered on 19th January. At noon around 400 people gathered at the location of the murder to leave flowers. Police and several busloads of OMON riot police were present at the spot, but eventually did not intervene.

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Actions to commemorate Stas and Nastya around Russia

20th January in Moscow, St. Petersburg and Grozniy, various actions were organized to commemorate Stas Markelov and Anastasiya Baburova, murdered on 19th January. At noon around 400 people gathered at the location of the murder to leave flowers. Police and several busloads of OMON riot police were present at the spot, but eventually did not intervene.

Moscow anarchists decided that candles and flowers were not enough of a reaction to such an outrageous murder, so they decided to organise an illegal demonstration.

The first gathering place was leaked to the police and it was surrounded by a tight cordon of OMON. Eventually the gathering place was moved to the Bolshoi Theater, but police got there as well and at around 7.30 pm they attacked the peaceful demonstrators. Around 15 people were arrested, with a few more being arrested at the "Okhotniy Ryad" metro station, and the remaining protestors moved to the exit of the Novokuznetskaya metro station.

From there, a march was launched at 8.20 pm which blocked Pyatnitskaya street. The march went to Obvodnaya canal proceeded by embankment; from there the demonstration moved to Bolshaya Ordynka street, blocking it.

People shouted "Fascists murder, the authorities cover up!", "We do not forget, we do not forgive", "Our motherland is the whole of humanity". There were banners reading "No impunity" and "Fascists murder, the authorities cover up!". Trash cans were thrown onto street to stop traffic. At the end of the march, a few bank windows and the windows of the McDonald's at Tretyakovskaya metro station were trashed. Altogether around 200 people joined the demonstration.

During the action, around 50 people were arrested altogether, a good part of them random passers-by, but it seems everyone was released without charge during the same evening.

The text of a leaflet is available in Russian at http://www.avtonom.org/index.php?nid=2190, but it could not be distributed at the action as the whole print run got confiscated before it started.

In St. Petersburg, around 100 people gathered at Ligovskiy street at 7pm. This was an openly announced action and the police attempted to stop it. However, people managed to launch a march towards Marsova fields, where there is a memorial to the victims of White terror. There, a small meeting was organised.

There was also a rather strange demonstration in Chechnya. This was officially sanctioned by the authorities, and among the various human rights organizations there were such strange entities as the "Ramzan Kadyrov Fan Club". It was reported, that more than 1,000 people joined the demonstration. Stas and Nastya were definitely no fans of the current totalitarian regime in Chechnya, however Stas was defending the interests of relatives of victims in two most prominent Russian war crimes courts. Whereas the current Chechen regime is not too keen to punish their own power structures for human rights violations, they pursue the course of prosecuting non-Chechen Russian army officials for reasons of public relations, and also to erase from the republic all federal structures not directly subordinate to the current regime.

Russian version (with photos): http://www.avtonom.org/index.php?nid=2190

More photos:
http://anatrrra.livejournal.com/106028.html
http://sterm-fuck.livejournal.com/115603.html
http://ru.indymedia.org/newswire/display/21476/index.php

[Report dated 20.01.09, taken from the Autonomous Action website and edited by Anarkismo.net]