WORLD WORLDWIDE UnitedKingdom uk Europe - news journal UPDATE - (en) UK, ACG: Two Russian anarchist opponents of war receive savage sentences (ca, de, it, pt, tr)[machine translation]

 Alexey Rozhkov  has been sentenced to 16 years for setting fire to a

military enlistment office, whilst Ruslan Sidiki  has received a prison
sentence of 29 years. Sidiki was beaten and received electric shock
torture in custody. ---- Rozhkov made an arson  attack on a military
enlistment office after the invasion of Ukraine by the Russian army on
March 11th, 2022. He said in an interview:.  ---- "I just understood
that I couldn't stay indifferent. (...) Any war means death for
ordinary, simple people. War in the 21st century seems completely alien
to me. Especially with such absurd reasons[they gave]. We annexed Crimea
in 2014, and even then I said it was all done in vain. Crimea is not
ours and never will be. There will be consequences. And that's exactly
what happened.

I find it deeply upsetting that people are dying - civilians are dying,
and those who don't want to fight but were conscripted are also dying. I
wanted to make a statement, to get people to fight against this war. I
wanted to influence the situation, to do something to stop or at least
weaken[the Russian military]. That's why I set fire to the military
enlistment office."

Rozhkov was abducted from Kyrgyzstan where he had fled, by Putin's
secret police, the FSB. In addition to the arson charge, now updated to
"terrorism", he was also accused of "justifying terrorism" and spreading
"fake news" about the Russian military due to an interview he gave to
the Khodorkovsky Live channel.

  Another anarchist, Roman Shvedov, 39 years old, had been earlier
sentenced to the same number of years imprisonment on similar charges.
After his sentence, he committed suicide in December 2024..

You can write to Alexei to show support:

Mailing Address:

Rozhkov Alexey Igorevich, born 1997

Repina St. 4, SIZO-1

620019, Yekaterinburg, Russia

Letters should be written in Russian, you may use automatic online
translation tools.

Ruslan Sidiki

Ruslan Sidiki, a Russian-Italian, was sentenced by a military court in
Ryazan to 29 years , nine years of which in a prison, and the rest in a
maximum security prison. He was accused of derailing a freight train and
attacking a military airfield near Ryazan on the orders of Ukrainian
special services. He denied working for Ukraine. Here is part of his
final statement in court:

My targets were Russian military equipment and the logistical chains
used to transport military hardware and fuel. In this way, I wanted to
impede military operations against Ukraine...I have said more than once
that I had no intention of deliberately intimidating anyone. I chose the
targets myself. I attacked the military aircraft parking area, intending
to destroy the aircraft. The train was derailed to disable the railway
line on which I had observed the movement of military equipment.

I would like to point out that I monitored the train traffic on the line
I sabotaged and made sure there were no passenger trains running on it.
For additional assurance, I maintained visual contact. If I had been
indifferent to people's lives, I could have derailed the train without
direct involvement...The impossibility of peacefully influencing the
authorities' actions and the criminal prosecution of those who disagree
with them leads some to leave the country, while others decide to take
action.In any case, regardless of the severity of the act, the use of
torture during interrogation is unacceptable if we live in a state
governed by the rule of law. To torture someone with electric shocks and
beat them while they are tied up is an utterly despicable act.
Responsibility here lies not only with those who used these
interrogation methods but also with those who know about it, those who
fail to react, and those who help to cover it up.

And finally, I will read an excerpt from a poem by  Nestor Makhno*:

"Let them bury us now,

But our essence will not sink into oblivion,

It will rise up at the necessary hour

And will triumph, I believe in this."

As soon as we obtain an address for Ruslan, we will publish it

*Nestor Makhno , Ukrainian anarchist who inspired a mass insurrectionary
movement during the Russian Civil war.

https://www.anarchistcommunism.org/2025/05/25/two-russian-anarchist-opponents-of-war-receive-savage-sentences/
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