The website, Libcom.org, has a post up about a report issued by a Russian Food Not Bombs group claiming that on March 9th, 2014, Food Not Bombs anti-war protest organizers were kidnapped and beaten, and threatened with murder, by a dozen masked men. The group had organized and had been participating in an "Against the War in Ukraine" anti-war protest when the attacks occurred.
As previously reported in this diary many on the Russian left have taken a strong anti-war stance against Russia's militarism in Ukraine.
Update: What this means is the Russians have no greater desire to sacrifice their lives in battles of their government hegemonic interests than Americans or Europeans do in their own respective countries. What's informative about this is that the perspective of the left varies relative to which central government under which it lives. This in no way should be interpreted as indicating support for the hegemony of the United States, the European Union, or the International Monetary Fund. What this demonstrates is the illusion of needing to choose between central authority at all. Note that this information comes from an anarchist (libertarian communist) website. Anarchists believe that central authority is the source of the problem, and they refuse to take sides of one over the other, since that route simply perpetuates the oligarchical meddling in the lives of the working class, and would replace this with bottom up, horizontal forms of direct democracy based on participatory communities, which form federations on local, regional, national, and international scale with mandated, recallable delegates.
Image and text from Libcom.org
On 9th of March, along with the traditional Food Not Bombs action, demonstration "Against the war in Ukraine" supposed to happen in Petrozavodsk, for a peaceful solution of tense situation there and prevention of bloodshed continuation.
On 8th of March evening, two organizers of the demo and one of their friend were attacked. Two cars arrived and a dozen strong men in masks immediately went to a fight. They were screaming "You f*cking want to give away our Crimea to Bandera people?", "You will learn how to demonstrate, *" and so on. After a quick but technical execution attackers got straight back into cars and drove away.
The next morning, half an our before the demo, while leaving the house after cooking for Food Not Bombs four participants of the action and the demo were again attacked by unidentified masked men, beaten again and pushed into two cars and driven away. As it became known later they were taken to a forest, 40-45 km from the city. On the way they were told by attackers that they are going to dig their graves, all the way they were being beaten and abused. After arrival victims were taken out from the car one by one in different places (each one was followed by 3-4 masked people and after this car drove some distance), again beaten up and abused. Police batons and wrapped in polyethylene chains were used. Attackers were threatening to cripple or kill.
Meanwhile, some unknown people came to the demo with provocative signs, irrelevant to the demonstration topic, made a photo and fled away, so the breakdown of the demo was clearly planned. Participants of the event, as well as other social activists, have very reason to fear for the safety of themselves and their loved ones.
Right now people have stable health situation, except broken fingers, dislocated vertebrae and hematomas.
Information was given straight from Food Not Bombs Petrozavodsk group.
Please share this information.
Update: What this means is the Russians have no greater desire to sacrifice their lives in battles of their government hegemonic interests than Americans or Europeans. Note that this information comes from an anarchist (libertarian communist) website. What's informative about this is that the perspective of the left varies relative to which central government under which it lives. This in no way should be interpreted as indicating support for the hegemony of the United States, the European Union, or the International Monetary Fund. What this demonstrates is the illusion of needing to choose between central authority at all. Anarchists believe that central authority is the source of the problem, and they refuse to take sides of one over the other, since that route simply perpetuates the oligarchical meddling in the lives of the working class, and would replace this with bottom up, horizontal forms of direct democracy based on participatory communities, which form federations on local, regional, national, and international scale with mandated, recallable delegates.