When Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, anti-Putin Russian partisans began to launch sabotage operations against Kremlin infrastructure inside their country.
After almost one year of war, these cells in Russia have grown exponentially. From Moscow to Vladivostok, there have been more than 80 confirmed anti-government attacks in the past 12 months.
Arson in BuryatiaArson
On the night of February 1, they attacked relay cabinets on the Ivanovo-Kostroma line. They also destroyed a traction substation near Matveev Kurgan station the day before. According to the partisans, thereby they ensured a delay in the transfer of military echelons.
On the same night of February 1 unknown people set fire to a warehouse at the GRU training ground in the settlement of Senezh in Moscow region. The duty officer of m/u 43292 appealed to the emergency services and the fire could not be beaten on their own.
On the night of February 3 an unknown partisan in the military town of Shchelkovo (Moscow region) set fire to and smashed the front window of an expensive foreign car with Z-symbols on it. It is reported that the value of the car enthusiast of the wars of aggression 4.5 million rubles.
February 4 at night, unknown guerrillas, presenting themselves as the “Green Gendarme”, attacked one of the signalling units on the railroad in Karelia. This was reported by the Freedom of Russia Legion. The guerrillas claim that this will hinder the movement of military echelons and freight trains for several days.
On the night of February 6, guerrillas attacked the wooden building of the Tunkinsk inter-district investigative department of the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation in Buryatia. He used an entire jerry can of gasoline to set it on fire from the rear. The building caught fire very quickly. Despite the fact that the fire was soon extinguished, the rooms inside were pretty badly damaged. Unfortunately, the 56-year-old Oleg Aleksandrov from the village of Kyren was immediately detained on suspicion. Continue reading “Russia: Chronicle of Radical Resistance 1-6. 02.2023”
It is important that women’s protest voices be heard from movements with different strategies: we all have something to exchange with each other. Our activists are interviewing representatives of the Militant Anarcho-Communist Organization to remind us that the phrase “women’s place is in resistance” is not just a beautiful metaphor, and sometimes women make the choice to protest radically. For the initiative, whose representatives we interviewed, it is important to damage public infrastructure, not civilians, so all actions are designed so that no one gets hurt. You can read about the women partisans of the past, whom our heroines inherit, in a beautiful text by Maria Rachmaninova.
If you are in Russia, be careful about distributing this material, learn all the necessary cybersecurity guidelines if you are distributing any material about war and resistance.
_________________________________
Do women take part in your guerrilla actions? If so, in what capacity? Does gender affect camouflage and security, maybe women arouse less suspicion and so on?
Yes, we take an active part in guerrilla actions at all stages, from plan formulation and scouting (note: intelligence) to direct action and media coverage. To some extent, the distribution of responsibilities may be due to physical ability, but it often depends not on gender, but on a person’s individual characteristics: some people find it easier to carry a 15-kilogram bucket of igdanite, some can see better, some run faster, and some shoot more accurately.
Gender certainly affects disguise and security: the very presence of a woman in the collective transforms (in the eyes of the public and the police) a dangerous gang of shady types into a harmless group of friends walking late into the night. Because of the sexism ingrained in the ranks of the police, women tend to be less likely to be stopped on the street or in the subway, and less likely to be searched. We’ve had quite a few cases where, for example, when we pass through a metal detector frame, a signal goes off, and the subway policemen and janitors come running and start meticulously checking a young man (who, of course, has nothing to hide), while a girl with a gun stands quietly nearby. So it turns out that sometimes the man is carrying something heavy and the woman carries something dangerous (like a detonator) in a small purse, without arousing suspicion.
Also, in our experience, it is much easier for women in terms of disguise themselves – changing their appearance. At the action itself everyone looks about the same: as blackblock kids, but before and after the action, when it is necessary to look civil, a woman needs to dissolve her hair (wig) and roll up a dress, when as a typical male image, which should not attract attention, allows only minor changes, for example in the color of clothing.
Editor’s note: We clarified here whether we should publish such details and whether it would hurt disguise strategies, but we were allowed to publish in full to share with others.
Continue reading “Russia: Women partisans – interviews with BOAK group members”