Answer violence with Solidarity – Need for Urgent Action. More arrests in Moscow.
On International Day against Violence Against Women, once again Moscow police have acted in a completely unjustified manner. In St Petersburg a picket was held successfully and peacefully. In Moscow the authorities refused permission for an action, fearing it would be as big as last year’s when over a thousand attended. Once again Sotsialist Feminist Alternativa was forced to resort to a “single person picket” the only legal form of protest allowed.
From two locations eleven people were arrested by the police and taken to two different police stations. The first five were released after a couple of hours, but the six taken to the OVD Zamoskvorechye station have been told that they have been charged with disobeying police orders and will be held for 48 hours. The six are Syrga Chidaran, Kseniya Bezdenezhnykh, Aleksandra Rogacheva, Marta Khromova, Elizaveta Drepeleva and Vitalii Kudrin. Our understanding then was that the six were to be held for 48 hours.
We now discover that they are to be taken to court tomorrow and charged with disobeying the police – it is quite possible they will be given two-week prison sentences.
To add insult to injury tonight three more supporters who went to the police station to express their solidarity were arrested. They are Natavan Mamedova, Anastasia Puzakova and Kseniya Samarina.
We know neither the time of the court or which court they will be taken to.
Please can comrades sent urgent protests to the Russian embassies in your country (Canada: [email protected]) – even the Russian government should be embarrassed that people protesting peacefully against violence against women are arrested in this way.
Also send messages of support to Aiten on [email protected] or telegram @ayten_yakubova and they will be passed on.
Letter from Socialist Alternative Canada to Russian Embassy in Ottawa
On November 25th, the United Nations International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women, single-person protests were organized in Russia by Социалистическая Альтернатива (Socialist Alternative) and others.
These protests, which were legal, COVID-safe, and – unfortunately – highly necessary, were allowed to proceed in Saint Petersburg. However, in Moscow, 11 participants were unjustifiably arrested, and six remain in police custody. We have been informed that those six – Сырга Чидаран, Ксения Безденежных, Александра Рогачева, Марта Хромова, Елизавета Дрепелева, and Виталий Кудрин (Syrga Chidaran, Kseniya Bezdenezhnykh, Aleksandra Rogacheva, Marta Khromova, Elizaveta Drepeleva and Vitalii Kudrin) – who are being held at ОВД Замоскворечье (OVD Zamoskvorechye), are to be charged with “disobeying police.”
Further, we have learned that three others – Натаван Мамедова, Анастасия Пузакова, and Ксения Самарина (Natavan Mamedova, Anastasia Puzakova and Kseniya Samarina) – who went to the police station to show solidarity with the arrested protestors have themselves been arrested as well.
It is ironic indeed that these peaceful protesters, who were bringing attention to the important issue of domestic violence, were violently attacked by the police and imprisoned simply for expressing their views about violence against women. This is an important issue and these activists are to be applauded for standing up to attacks on women’s rights, including that of the Duma’s moves in 2017-19 to decriminalize domestic violence.
Socialist Alternative Canada and our sympathizers in Canada and around the world demand the immediate release of all arrestees and the dismissal of any and all charges levelled against them.
National Executive Committee of Socialist Alternative Canada
