Approximate reading time 5-10 minutes. Digest of cases of political repression in which the SAC took/is taking part Boris Kagarlitsky Alexander Kupriyanov Konstantin Zavalin Azat Miftakhov Lev Skoryakin Felix Eliseev Aikhal Ammosov Anton Orlov

The Committee for Solidary Actions is a political group of left-wing and trade union activists reestablished in 2022.

The SAC of the first call was set up at the end of 2005. Over less than 5 years of its activities, the SAC held dozens of actions and solidarity campaigns, the largest of which were the 28-day long strike at the Ford plant in Vsevolozhsk and the 2-month long work-to-rule strike at the Sea Port of St. Petersburg.

Life has once again set us practical tasks that require unification of the now small forces of the workers' movement and activists of leftist organizations. The growth of repression against leftists and trade union activists, the unjust war of conquest against Ukraine, and the worsening status of wage earners were the reasons for the revival of the organization.

In its activities, the SAC unites representatives of a number of leftist organizations, trade unions, as well as non-party activists. The Union of Marxists, "Left Socialist Action", International Association of Workers (Russian section), "Fakel", Novomoskovsk Left Committee, Organization of Communists-Internationalists, Union of Democratic Socialists, “Left Block” are the organizations whose representatives participate in the work of the SAC.

On the side of the independent trade union movement, representatives of the MPRA, "Courier", "Action" (a trade union of medical workers), "UniSol" (trade union of university teachers and students) and “Defense” participate in the SAC.

At the moment, the SAC's main purpose is to support repressed political and trade union activists.

We have been and are still fighting for the release of political prisoners, including Anton Orlov, Konstantin Zavalin, Kirill Ukraintsev, Lev Skoryakin and Boris Kagarlitsky.

In add ition, the SAC sees its task as a political and economic struggle for the liberation of labor and humanity as a whole from the dictatorship of capital. Each of our actions is aimed at making wage workers realize their class interests and organize themselves to fight for these interests.

People of different views are involved in the SAC, but all of us are united by internationalism, aspiration to liquidation of private property and exploitation of man by man, understanding of necessity to liquidate the bourgeois state and build a society in which labor classes themselves manage everything, break with bourgeois-police social-democracy represented by the CPRF, categorical condemnation of military invasion of Russian imperialism into Ukraine.

Over the past year, the SAC together with allied organizations collected about 800 thousand rubles to help political prisoners-union activists, first of all Anton Orlov, held and participated in the organization and holding of evenings of letters, disseminated information and through its activists supported the trade union "Courier". We are organizing solidarity campaigns and participating in the campaigns of our comrades and like-minded people.

We are increasingly stepping up our struggle against political repression by the bourgeois state, as well as for the rights of wage laborers.

We consider it essential to strengthen international ties of international solidarity. The current moment demands that all left progressive forces on the planet unite and organize to fight for a future without wars, exploitation, poverty and injustice. The world must belong to those who shed their blood, sweat and tears for its benefits!

We are confident that our comrades abroad will give us all possible support. We express the same readiness!

Solidarity forever!

Digest of cases of political repression in which the SAC took/is taking part

Boris Kagarlitsky

Boris Kagarlitsky became a left-wing dissident during his student years in the late 70s. He participated in the samizdat magazines “Options” and “Left Turn” (later “Socialism and the Future”). In 1979 he became a candidate member of the CPSU.

He was interrogated by the KGB and expelled from the institute (GITIS). He worked as a postman. In April 1982, he was arrested in the “Case of Young Socialists” and spent over a year in Lefortovo prison.

During the years of perestroika, he participated in the activities of the Moscow Popular Front, served on its Coordination Council, wrote books and articles, incl. for foreign publications. In 1988 he was reinstated at GITIS and graduated from it.

In the 90s, he was actively involved in work in independent trade unions and worked at the Institute of Comparative Political Science and Problems of the Labor Movement of the Russian Academy of Sciences (ISP RAS), and participated in an attempt to create the “Party of Labor”. In 2005 he participated in the creation of the Left Front. In 2006, he accused the leader of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation Gennady Zyuganov of trading places on party lists in parliamentary elections.

He went on to found the Institute of Globalization and Social Movements, worked in sociology there, and promoted and developed world-system analysis. He is the editor-in-chief of Rabkor (socio-political media). At a certain stage he became a respectable economist-statesman, invited by the media as an expert, justified the foreign policy of the Russian Federation.

With the beginning of a full-scale war against Ukraine, takes an anti-war stance. On May 6, 2022 the Russian Ministry of Justice included Kagarlitsky in the list of "foreign agents".

He was arrested (July 26, 2023) by the Syktyvkar court for his statements explaining the logic of fighting from the side of Ukraine. (part 2 of article 205.2 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation - public justification of terrorism, committed with the use of the Internet).

KSD disseminates information about this case, held discussions on Kagarlitsky's views, and provided small material aid for transfers to prison.

On December 12, 2023, Boris Kagarlitsky was released in the courtroom. He was found guilty and sentenced to a fine (600 thousand rubles), as well as a ban on the use and administration of social networks.

February 13, the appellate military court, upon the prosecutor's request, sentenced Kagarlitsky to five years in a general regime corrective colony. The next instance where the defense will fight for the annulment of the verdict is the cassation military court in Novosibirsk. The public campaign for the release of Boris Yulievich continues.

Alexander Kupriyanov

Alexander Kupriyanov (known in Bryansk region as Doctor Truth) is a communist and a blogger and public activist. He was actively involved in the development of the medical union "Action" in his region.

Kupriyanov was engaged in covering cases in the medical sphere, acute citywide problems, such as forced eviction from "dilapidated" housing, held rallies. In 2018, Kupriyanov was arrested on charges of fraud - apparently, the authorities decided to take revenge.

Kupriyanov allegedly imposed loans for medical treatment at Med-Life. Kupriyanov was neither the owner, nor the administration or accounting department of Med-Life who offered loans to clients. As head physician of the center, he was engaged only in treatment activities. The authorities used the fraud case to delete their opponent at the same time.

Then Alexander was kept in the pre-trial detention center for the maximum possible year and released without closing the case. Then the case was prolonged and prolonged up to the present moment.

After the anti-corruption round table held in 2023 by the Public Council of Citizens of Bryansk and the newspaper "For Truth and Justice" with Alexander's active participation, the repressions again entered an acute phase.

His case was reclassified to a more serious article (organized community). Kupriyanov is being given new volumes of the case for familiarization, after which the judgment will take place.

On February 21, Alexander Kupriyanov was deported from the city of Bryansk by police officers. They escorted him to Cheboksary for a court hearing in order to change restrictive measures imposed on him. The reason was the investigation’s assumptions that Alexander had been using the Internet in violation of the Prohibition of Certain Actions. Despite the investigation’s position, advising on detention, thanks to the efforts of the lawyer, the public, and the common sense of the judge, the preventive measure was ruled to remain the same.

Konstantin Zavalin

Konstantin Zavalin - an activist of the "Defense" trade union from the city of Astrakhan. He was fired from his job at the Gazprom company for reporting a technological violation that could have resulted in a disaster and loss of life.

Arrested on March 2, 2022 - the reason was a picket (held on January 9) against the deployment of CSTO-RF troops in Kazakhstan. Zavalin was accused of using violence against a representative of the authorities, while in fact, during the arrest, on the contrary, Zavalin himself was beaten and seriously injured (rupture of the shoulder joint tissues), also as a result of many hours of being held in painfully closefitting handcuffs, stagnant blood circulation caused damage to various organs.

Konstantin was sentenced to 1.6 years of forced labor, where he continued to fight for labor rights. During the enforcement of his sentence, he was placed in an isolation ward (there he went on a hunger strike), and after his release (about a year later) he was not given his work record book.

Konstantin is currently recovering.

Azat Miftakhov

Azat Miftakhov is an anarchist, a talented mathematician and, since 2016, an author of scientific publications. He has repeatedly been subjected to police pressure and repression in various criminal cases, in which, as a rule, the authorities have associated him with the People's Self-Defense organization. Torture was used against Miftakhov after he was arrested. There is now a new trial going on against him.

Thousands of mathematicians from 15 countries participated in the campaign to support Azat Miftakhov and signed a petition for his release. In January 2021, he was found guilty of hooliganism committed by a group of people. The reason was an action staged by anarchists, during which glass was broken in one of Moscow offices of the United Russia party and a smoke bomb was thrown inside (almost no damage was done to the office). Taking into account the results of the appeal actions, as well as the conversion of one day in a pre-trial detention center to 1.5 days in a prison colony, Azat was supposed to be released on September 6, 2023

On September 4, hardly had Azat Miftakhov left the colony prison gates and as he was detained again. This time he was accused under the article “justification of terrorism” (Part 1 205.2 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation). Allegedly, already in the prison, he had approved of the anarchist Zhlobitsky, who had staged a self-detonation of the FSB office in Arkhangelsk.

On March 28, a court in Yekaterinburg sentenced Azat Miftakhov to four years in prison (two and a half years in prison and one and a half years in a strict regime corrective colony).

On August 15, the Military Court of Appeal in the town of Vlasikha upheld the sentence.

The Solidarity Action Committee (SAC) disseminated information about the case of Azat Miftakhov and participated in the “1001 and one letter” support campaign organized by the “Free Azat” support group.

Lev Skoryakin

Anarchist Lev Skoryakin was detained in December 2021 along with communist Ruslan Abasov. These guys were accused of “disorderly conduct with the use of weapons by a group of pople due to political hatred.”According to investigators, Lev organized an attack on FSB's Moscow office. He allegedly planned the attack from his home, while two other Left Bloc activists hung a banner containing criticisms against the FSB on the agency's front gate and threw a smoke bomb over the fence. Based on the testimony of an intimidated minor and fabricated evidence, Ruslan and Lev were sent to a pre-trial detention center.

After 7 months, the comrades’ measure of restraint was changed: they were banned from certain activities. Lev was able to escape to Kyrgyzstan, where he was detained due to the existence of an extradition treaty between the countries. KSD helped Lev with collecting funds for parcels and medical care.

In Kyrgazstan, he received a German humanitarian visa and an ersatz-passport. On the day when he was about to leave Kyrgyzstan, he was kidnapped and illegally, violating all extradition norms, taken to the Russian Federation.

On December 13, he was released from judicial custody. He was found guilty. A fine of 500 thousand rubles was imposed, which was canceled due to Lev Skoryakin’s long stay in a pre-trial detention center.

Due to fears that the prosecution would appeal the decision, he left for Germany on a humanitarian visa.

Felix Eliseev

Felix Eliseev is a marxist from the Lipetsk region. He was sentenced to 14 years in prison for allegedly "justifying terrorism" and "high treason" due to his support of Ukraine. Previously, Felix Eliseev, known as Rumata Estorsky on the VKontakte social network, was involved in the activities of the "Emancipation of Labor" Marxist group. With the collapse of this group and the weakening of the trade union and social movements, Felix switched to administering public pages and Telegram channels such as "It has fallen apart", "Kolkhoz Madness".

A few careless words and the transfer of funds in support of Ukraine became grounds for multiple criminal cases initiated against him. He was detained in December 2022. Under pressure and torture, he was forced to give self-incriminating testimony. Unfortunately, he was not provided with legal assistance at the initial stage. Later, according to testimony from relatives and acquaintances with whom he kept in touch, after giving self-incriminating testimony, he considered any paid-for legal assistance useless. In pre-trial detention centers, the arrested individuals were held in bad conditions, and as a result Felix Eliseev fell ill several times.

So for his words and a small donation in favor of Ukraine, the Russian state sent the communist to prison for a horrendous 14 years back in December 2023.

The SAC collects and disseminates information about this case, as left-wing activists repressed for their resistance to the Russian imperialism should remain in our focus of attention and receive help.

Daria Kozyreva

Daria Kozyreva is currently detained awaiting trial on charges of repeated "defamation of the army".

Since the "special military operation" began, Daria Kozyreva has been adamant in calling it an imperialist war.

This assessment of the war is determined by her communist views which she adopted back when she was a teenager.

It is only logical for a communist to fight against their own country's imperialism. She (along with her boyfriend) got her first defamation protocol in Auguns 2022 for tearing off Z-themed paraphernalia in the Patriot Park of Kronstandt. This communist got the first administrative charges laid against her for a post in the Vkontakte social network, in which she was crticizing the "anti-fake" law.

She was also expelled from the SPS-University, where she was training to be a medic, for an anti-war post.

After laying flowers in memory of the murdered Navalny, Daria was arrested and imprisoned for 5 days.

The "defamation of the army" criminal case was initiated against Kozyreva because on February 22, 2024, she pasted the following excerpt from Taras Shevchenko's «My Testament» on said writer's monument:

«Поховайте та вставайте,
Кайдани порвіте
І вражою злою кров’ю
Волю окропіте!»

On August, 2, it was informed that another case of discrediting the army had been opened against Darya. Most likely, it will be combined with the one already submitted to court. The case was opened based on Kozyreva’s interview to the Sever.Realii. periodical.

It is important for the SAC to spread the word about such persistent and fervent fighters against the war in Ukraine, thus inspiring others!

Aikhal Ammosov

In August 2022, Aikhal Ammosov, a Yakut punk musician, the front man of the Crispy Newspaper band hung a poster “Yakut punks against the war” on a building in the center of the city of Yakutsk. Following this, a criminal case was opened against him under Article 280.3 of the Criminal Code on discrediting the army. Soon after the case was opened, the young man fled to Kazakhstan.

In Kazakhstan, Aikhal was waitingfor a humanitarian visa to Germany for four months, but he was previously detained by officers of the National Security Committee of Kazakhstan . At the moment, Kazakh human rights activists are fighting for Aikhal; they have submitted documents to grant Aikhal the refugee status. He is currently being held in a pre-trial detention center, but he has received the status of an asylum seeker, which reduces the likelihood of his extradition to Russia.

Anton Orlov

Activity:

A coordinator for the Republic of Bashkortostan of the “Action” independent trade union of medical workers, secretary for work with the youth of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation in the republic, member of the Union of Marxists.

Participated:

- in organizing the “go-slow” strike action in Ishimbay, where they demanded additional payments for working in incomplete ambulance teams. The strike took place in February 22, on the eve of the so called "Special military operation" and led to the intervention of the State Tax Inspectorate and the prosecutor's office, as well as the resignation of the head physician, causing a noticeable outcry in the media.

- in retrieving Covid payments, increasing additional payments for work on weekends and at night, improving the provision of PPE, etc. in the townships of Salavat, Birsk, Beloretsk, in the Iglinsky district, etc.

When Orlov was a coordinator, the unionization figure of the “Action” union in Bashkiria increased four times.

Repression:

On September 23, 2022, the court sentenced Orlov to 6.5 years in a fraud case (Part 4 of Article 159 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation). The reason for persecution for Orlov’s activities was allegedly his previous entrepreneurial activity.It was Anton Orlov whom they decided to punish criminally for the failure of the company Nefte-Service to fulfill supply contracts (they failed due to logistical difficulties during the Covid crisis). At the same time, Anton was only a commercial director without the right to dispose of the company’s funds, and the founder and general director were not held accountable.

In the summer of 2024, the second criminal case against Anton Orlov was initiated. The plot of the case is almost completely identical to the previous one, with the difference that the disruption of the delivery had occurred somewhat earlier. A verdict is expected in August.

The Solidarity Action Committee organized money fundraising to pay for Orlov’s lawyer, evenings of letters in his support, and disseminated information about the persecution.

For more information about Anton Orlov see: https://freeorlov.org/ and in the telegram channel https://t.me/liberigo_orlov.

You can contribute to support those under political repression and the activities of the SAC here: https://boosty.to/komitetsd

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