#WORLD #WORLDWIDE #RUSSIA #ANARCHISM #LIBRARY #News #Journal #Update - (en) #Russia, Avtonom: Violence and Encryption: "Trends of Order and Chaos" Episode 92 (February 12) - Journey Through Places of Deprivation (Ivan Astashin) (ca, de, it, pt, tr)[machine translation]

 Direct anti-war action ---- Recently, direct action within Russia against the war

has become clearly more prominent in the media. These are the arson of military
registration and enlistment offices (only on February 9, a man was detained in
Omsk), and the decommissioning of rails, and so on. It is impossible to say
exactly how many of these actions are carried out by anarchists. But so, about
the media. ---- The other day DOXA posted an interview about the new so-called
anti-sabotage laws. Interviewees include the Combat Organization of
Anarcho-Communists (BOAC), an underground anarchist who engages in what the
Russian authorities classify as "terrorism" and "sabotage."

Western media are not far behind. First, the left-wing Youtube channel Popular
Front spoke to BOAC, and now even the BBC. Naturally, everyone whose names are
mentioned in these texts is already outside of Russia.

By the way, once again we remind you of the need to be extremely careful if
strangers offer you money for direct actions in the messenger. Treat all this
with doubt and criticism. On January 30, in the Moscow region, three
eighth-graders were already detained by the FSB and are now sewing a terrorist
attack on them "on instructions from Telegram." Remember that no one canceled the
provocations of cops and faces.

Cops inside the country are compensating for defeats on the Ukrainian front,
where the Kremlin is not doing very well so far: on February 10, pro-Russian
telegram channels reported that Russian troops had lost more than 100 pieces of
equipment near Vuhledar, including 36 tanks. Ukraine also suffers losses, but
much less. Russia, apparently, uses the tactics of "throwing cannon fodder."

This, however, does not prevent the authorities from planning another
militaristic Sabbath with Putin's participation on February 22 at Luzhniki. Of
course, it is timed to coincide with the anniversary of the start of the war -
well, or with Russia's recognition of the "independence of Donbass", which, in
principle, is the same thing. Of course, students have already begun to be driven
there, as well as extras for 500 rubles. And in general, in order to prevent a
war, it is not even necessary to blow up military railways. Just convince the
students you know not to go to this zigging festival. Just talk to your
colleagues - not activists, not anarchists - but ordinary people at your work or
in your neighborhood with whom you have developed a trusting relationship. If
they are thinking about selling their soul in this way for 500 rubles, try to
convince them. It is important.

Most often, such people try to "just wait out" the dark times. The best thing, of
course, is to convince them of the need for active anti-war activity, but if they
do not go to Luzhniki (or whatever you have in your city instead of Luzhniki) on
February 22, this is already a small victory. Try.

Earthquake in Turkey and Syria
As you know, a terrible earthquake occurred in southern Turkey and Syria on
February 6. At least 19 thousand people died. Syrian Kurdistan has also suffered,
where people are building a society based, as far as possible under the
circumstances, on self-government and libertarian principles. Meanwhile, the
Turkish government, led by Erdogan, continues to consider them "separatists" and
"terrorists" and hits already destroyed cities with rockets. This is more
important for Erdogan than saving the victims in his own country.

Secure messengers: the fall of Telegram and Signal
On February 2, the famous computer-related publication Wired published an article
about the fragile "security" of Telegram called "The Kremlin has entered the
chat." There is also a Russian translation. To summarize, the conclusions are
such that the structure of Telegram makes it much easier for the Russian
authorities to massively monitor public chats and channels. And even so-called
private chats (with end-to-end encryption) sometimes behave very strangely, as if
someone else is reading them.

We have already criticized Telegram more than once, and we will repeat it again -
this messenger is not safe even from a purely technical, cryptographic side,
which has been repeatedly confirmed by scientific research. Yes, Telega's
channels and public chats have become an important part of the Russian opposition
and anti-war movement. But please don't use it for important private
conversations. Just consider that everything transmitted via Telegram is
automatically available to its owners, that is, Pavel Durov and his team. For
sensitive conversations, use truly secure communications that use only end-to-end
encryption and nothing else. For example, Signal and Matrix.

Of course, no technical solution cancels the observance of the basic rules of
safe communication on the network. But still, technology can greatly increase or
decrease the likelihood of information leakage to those who do not need it.
Telegram is a combination of two critical fails: 1) no end-to-end encryption by
default and 2) a team with strong Russian roots. Telegram owners have access to
your messages because Telegram does not have proper end-to-end encryption, and
the Russian authorities have the ability to put pressure on Telegram owners and
employees because of their ties to Russia and the importance of the Russian
market to them. All together - a recipe for disaster. It is not at all surprising
that from time to time we read with surprise about how Russian cops got access to
messages in seemingly private chats. Let's not forget about that after a long war
of blocking, Roskomnadzor officially unblocked Telegram in Russia. The terms of
this deal are still unknown, but the "fight against terrorism" definitely
figured. It is easy to guess what is "terrorism" in the first place for the
Russian authorities right now. Hint - we already talked about this at the very
beginning of this episode of "Trends".

By the way, about Signal. You may have heard criticism of this messenger for
using a phone number as an identifier. Indeed, it is not very good if this is
your Russian number, bought for your passport. If the cops took your friend,
knocked out the phone password from him and read your correspondence, they
immediately have your last name and registration. It would be better if it was
just a nickname, like in email.

But a few things need to be clarified here. First, this problem is easily solved
by using a foreign or anonymous phone number. The number is needed only once -
when creating an account in Signal, you need to get a verification code for it.
You can ask a friend abroad to buy a SIM card for a penny, get this code for it
and send it to you in any way. After that, you have a Signal, and a friend can
simply throw this SIM card into the river (well, or store it safely, if desired).
And even if there are no foreign friends, in Russia, if you wish, you can still
buy SIM cards without a passport, issued to no one knows who. Do this, start the
Signal and throw the SIM into the river in the same way. That's it, now your
number in the Signal is no different from an anonymous nickname.

Secondly, identification by number was made in the Signal for a reason and not
because its creator, anarchist Moxie Marlinspike, really wanted to hand you over
to the FSB. The reasons are the following:

This allows you to significantly expand the audience of the messenger: people are
used to finding contacts by phone number. Any secure messenger is meaningless if
it is used by two and a half activists around the world. The more ordinary people
correspond with you and each other in Signal or other really secure messenger,
the safer it is for everyone in general. Addressing by number makes it easy for
people to go to Signal and quickly find their contacts there. And their
correspondence is still reliably protected from being read by the cops - even if
they seize Signal's server in California. Everything is encrypted and the keys
are stored only on your device.

Using identification by phone number additionally allows Signal not to store your
"contact list" on its servers, as, for example, Telegram does. Your contact list
is your phone book on your phone. You decide how you still protect or who you
bring there. The signal does not know at all who you consider your contacts and
who not. Therefore, neither the cops nor the hackers who (hypothetically) could
hack Signal can get this information. You only need to take care of the security
of your phone, which is more realistic.

Just in case, let's clarify that we recommend Signal, but we have nothing against
decentralized messengers like Matrix. Just not Telegram, please. Keep channels in
the "Cart", create large public chats where nothing criminally punishable is
discussed, but let everything else be in secure means of communication.

Repression
And finally, about repression. There will be both sad news and joyful.

Anarchist Denis Kozak was detained in Kazakhstan at the request of Russia. He
escaped from house arrest in the case of "justifying terrorism" on Vkontakte.
This is connected, of course, with Mikhail Zhlobitsky, who blew himself up in the
building of the Arkhangelsk FSB in 2018. Denis was threatened with up to 7 years
in prison, and he left Russia.

And on February 10, Denis was detained by the police of Kazakhstan . The reason
for the detention was that the Russian Federation put him on the international
wanted list. Now he is under administrative arrest for 40 days, he applied for
political asylum, and there is still hope that he will not be extradited to
Russia, because there is no such criminal article in Kazakhstan. Before his
arrest, Denis wrote: "... Do not be afraid to fight. We will win. We will build a
new world. The only thing you can do is to demolish the regime. And then we will
be free. Everyone. And myself included."

On February 15, a rally in support of Denis Kozak will take place near the Kazakh
embassy in Yerevan .

Meanwhile, in Russia, a criminal case has now been opened against Mikhail
Zhlobitsky's aunt - including for reposting poems about him. This, too, turns out
to be "justifying terrorism." I wonder if the name "Mikhail" or the surname
"Zhlobitsky" will be banned soon. Or the mention of the Arkhangelsk FSB.

But there is also good news. Dmitry Tsibukovskiy was released from the pre-trial
detention center in Chelyabinsk. They released him, like Anastasia before,
because the term had ended. The case of Anastasia and Dmitry lasted five years.
Read the details on our website .

In addition, on February 9, the head of the Kurier trade union, Kirill
Ukraintsev, was released in the courtroom . In fact, he was sentenced to a year
and a half in a colony-settlement for "repeatedly violating the established
procedure for organizing or holding a public event" because of four posts about
protests. But since he had already served this term in terms of a pre-trial
detention center, he was released.

We congratulate Dmitry, Anastasia and Kirill on their release and wish that
freedom spread around them and further - to the entire so-called Russian Federation.

An important announcement: we have launched a collection to defend Alexander
Snezhkov , accused in the "case of the Chita anarchists", we need to collect 50
thousand rubles. Alexander is in the Chita pre-trial detention center and is
accused of public calls to carry out terrorist activities, vandalism, and public
calls to carry out actions aimed at violating the territorial integrity of the
Russian Federation. All this for posts about anti-war activity, of course.

All these enumerations of wonderful people whom the Russian state either
imprisons or releases, I would like to end with a quote from Ivan Astashin. Ivan
served almost ten years for a Molotov cocktail in the FSB department and during
his time in prison he turned from a nationalist into an anarchist. Now he
supports political prisoners and recently published a wonderful book " Journey
through places of deprivation ", which we highly recommend.

So, in April last year, Ivan wrote in connection with the war and not only:

"In general, many and many residents of Russia, once in power (whether in uniform
or as the "head of the family") and believing in their impunity, become
executioners, sadists and rapists. And if this is backed up by xenophobic
propaganda and strong alcohol, monsters And since the authorities in Russia give
some people the authority to repair what they want in the territory under their
control, and force others to agree and not rebel, then violence becomes commonplace.

Now it has poured out beyond the borders of Russia. Everything that was going on
quietly during the "counter-terrorist operations", in police departments, in
secret prisons and unclassified institutions of the Federal Penitentiary Service,
in the army, as well as on the streets and in families, has now been seen by the
whole world. This is undoubtedly a terrible tragedy and great grief for the
victims and all adequate people. But I hope that over time this will lead to a
public review of the policy of giving uncontrolled power to anyone. Ridding the
world of violence seems to be an almost unbearable task, but I think when we
don't have police officers who "Putin told to fuck off", there will be no
military men who "the war will write off everything", there will be no Chekists
who "defend the motherland ", and there will also be no socially supported
patriarchy, racism and xenophobia, violence will be much less."

We completely agree with Ivan.

Well, that's all for today! We remind you that in "Trends of Order and Chaos" the
participants of "Autonomous Action" give anarchist assessments of current events.
Listen to us on  YouTube , SoundCloud and other platforms, visit our website
avtonom.org , subscribe to our e-mail newsletter!

https://avtonom.org/news/nasilie-i-shifrovanie-trendy-poryadka-i-haosa-epizod-92-12-fevralya
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