Russia: Letter from the 26-year-old antifascist Alexey Sutuga, imprisoned in Moscow

26-9/2012

Hello everyone!

Yet another period of our remand imprisonment is approaching its end, but I am certain that we will be kept locked up a few months more, even without any developments whatsoever in the fabricated criminal case against us.

You already know the details of our arrest and the violations connected to it, but now I want to share with you my thoughts regarding the political context surrounding our case. In my opinion, the main goal of the investigation is to bring the criminal charge of “creating an extremist organization” targeted against social groups of “fascists, Nazis and racists”.

There have already been similar precedents in terms of the practices of the E-Center (Center of Counteraction Against Extremism) around Russia. The main interest of the investigator S.I. Kochergin is to reveal the existence of the non-existent extremist movement “Antifa”, and to connect the case against Igor Kharchenko and the one against us into one simple case. It is an obvious effort by the police against people with anti-fascist ideas. And all of this is under the thorough control of the officers of the E-center and FSB, whose purpose is to criminalize anti-fascists and social activists.

It is no secret that we encourage people to actively participate in the oppositional movement, and we try to direct the opposition towards resolving social problems, part of which are the true reasons of racism and nationalism in our society. As a result, we have seen repression against anti-fascists all around Russia. This is how they are interfering in our attempts to take part in social movements.

At this point, it is too early to say anything about the development of my criminal case, as the investigation has practically ceased to work once I was arrested. Right now, we are simply “marinating” in prison. We know we are not guilty, as we did not cause any harm whatsoever to any victims. The latter lacked any guts in front of the investigators, and obediently pointed out our photographs from the Internet, as according to the officers of the E-Center, we are the leaders of the non-existent movement “Antifa”.

I want to send my warmest greetings to my relatives, friends and comrades from Russia, Belarus, Ukraine, Finland and other countries in Europe and the World. Thank you all for your support and solidarity actions. Once again we have received a confirmation of your solidarity. I wish you success in our struggle on every front.

Alexey Sutuga

Currently, funds for the defense costs have been exhausted.
You can always donate via Anarchist Black Cross of Moscow (see here).