💾 Archived View for library.inu.red › file › autonomous-action-the-dusk-before-dawn.gmi captured on 2023-01-29 at 06:25:44. Gemini links have been rewritten to link to archived content
➡️ Next capture (2024-06-20)
-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Title: The Dusk before Dawn Author: Autonomous Action Date: February 26, 2022 Language: en Topics: Ukraine, War, Russia Source: Retrieved on 27th February 2022 from https://crimethinc.com/2022/02/26/russian-anarchists-on-resisting-the-invasion-of-ukraine-updates-and-analysis Notes: The following text appeared today as a podcast in Russian on the Autonomous Action website.
On Thursday morning, Putin launched the biggest war in Europe since
World War II. He hides behind the alleged interests of the separatist
part of Donbas. Although the DPR and LPR were absolutely satisfied with
the recognition of their statehood, the official entry of the Russian
army and the promised one and a half trillion rubles. Recall that for
many months, the cost of rent and food prices in Russia itself have been
growing day by day.
The Kremlin has made absurd demands of the Kiev authorities—let’s start
with “denazification.” It is true that, thanks to their active
participation in the Maidan protests of 2014, the Ukrainian ultra-right
has secured an outsize position in politics and law enforcement
agencies. But in all the elections in Ukraine since 2014, they have won
no more than a few percent points of the vote. The President of Ukraine
is Jewish. The problem of the Ukrainian ultra-right must be solved, but
it cannot be solved with Russian tanks. The Kremlin’s other charges
against Ukraine—about corruption, election manipulation, and dishonest
courts—would be far more appropriate for the Kremlin to press against
itself. Now, Russian troops are, in the full sense of the word,
occupiers in a foreign land—no matter how this contradicts the
expectations of everyone who grew up on stories about the Great
Patriotic War.
Russia has found itself in international isolation. [Turkish President
Recep Tayyip] ErdoÄźan, [General Secretary of the Chinese Communist
Party] Xi Jinping, and even the Taliban are asking Putin to stop
hostilities. Europe and the United States impose new sanctions against
Russia every day.
As we prepare this text, the third day of the war is coming. The Russian
army has a clear superiority over the Ukrainian one, but the war does
not seem to be going exactly according to Putin’s plan. Apparently, he
counted on victory in one or two days with little or no resistance, but
there has been serious fighting throughout the territory of Ukraine.
Russians and the whole world are now watching videos showing shells
hitting residential buildings, an armored car running over a senior
citizen, corpses and shooting.
Roskomnadzor [the Russian government’s Federal Service for Supervision
of Communications, Information Technology, and Mass Media] is still
trying to threaten the entire Internet, demanding “Don’t call this a
war, but a special operation.” But few people take them seriously
anymore. As long as the Internet in Russia is not turned off completely,
there will be enough sources of information. Just in case, once again,
we recommend setting up Tor with bridges, VPN, and Psiphon in advance.
The effects of the sanctions and the war are just beginning to be felt
by Russians: Most of Moscow’s ATMs were out of paper money on Friday.
Why? Because the day before, people took 111 billion rubles from banks:
in fact, all their savings. The real estate market collapsed, and the
construction of residential buildings is the most important branch of
the Russian economy. The foreign automotive industry is gradually
ceasing to ship cars to Russia. The exchange rates of the dollar and the
euro are artificially constrained by the Central Bank. Shares of all
Russian companies fell severely. Everyone understands that it will only
get worse.
The Russian reaction to the war in Ukraine is completely different from
what happened here in 2014 [when Russia seized Crimea after the
Ukrainian revolution]. Many people, including celebrities who worked for
the government, are demanding an immediate end to the war. The removal
of Ivan Urgant, the leading Russian TV star, from the air is noteworthy.
The vast majority of those who still support Putin are also against the
war. The average Putin supporter just now thinks that everything has
been calculated, the war will not drag on for long, the Russian economy
will survive. Because yes, it’s not easy to live with the understanding
that your country is ruled by a deranged person—by Don Quixote with a
million-strong army, one of the strongest in the world, Don Quixote with
a nuclear weapon capable of destroying all of humanity. It is difficult
to realize that, having read second-rate political scientists and
philosophers, one can bomb a neighboring fraternal country and destroy
one’s own economy.
Reveling in unlimited power, Putin has gradually moved away from
reality: there are the stories about two-week quarantines for ordinary
mortals who need to meet with the Russian president for some reason, and
tables of gigantic length at which Putin receives both his ministers and
heads of other states.
Putin has always been a politician who balances the interests of
security forces and oligarchs. Now the president has stepped out of this
role, having gone on an independent voyage through the boundless sea of
senility. We are ready to bet a bottle of the best whiskey that in the
near future, Mr. President might experience a coup from his own inner
circle.
Russia may meet the year 2023 with some other system of power and a
different character in the Kremlin. What it will be is unknown. But for
now, it is the dusk before dawn.
In the meantime, protests against the war are taking place in Russia.
Anarchists participate in them in Moscow, St. Petersburg, Kazan, Perm,
Irkutsk, Yekaterinburg and other cities. In Russia, it is extremely
difficult to organize street protests; this is fraught with
administrative and criminal terms, not to mention good old-fashioned
police violence. But people are coming out all the same. Thousands have
already been detained, but the protests continue. Russia is against this
war and against Putin! Come out—when and where you see fit. Team up with
friends and like-minded people. Social networks are suggesting Sunday at
4 p.m. as the time for a general protest action. This day and hour is no
worse than any other. Download anti-war leaflets for distribution and
posting from our website and social networks!
Meanwhile, Ukrainian anarchists are joining in the territorial defense
of their cities. It is now harder for them than for people in Russia,
but this is one and the same defense. This is the defense of freedom
against dictatorship, of will against bondage, of normal people against
deranged presidents.
If Putin suddenly comes to his senses by some miracle, and the war ends
one of these days, are we ready to “return to our sheep,” as the French
say? It is likely that we will be kicked out of the Council of Europe.
Thus, Russians will lose the opportunity to apply to the European Court
of Human Rights, and soon the Kremlin will restore the death penalty.
For now, we will return to the news in the spirit of all recent years:
right now, the State Duma [a legislative body in the ruling assembly of
Russia] is adopting a law according to which a military conscript must
himself come to the military enlistment office rather than waiting for a
summons. Putin also recently raised the salaries of the police. And the
prosecutor’s office, in an appeal, demands to increase the term of an
anarchist from Kansk, Nikita Uvarov, convicted in the famous “Minecraft
terrorism case,” from five to nine years.
You yourself know what to do with all this.
Freedom for the peoples! Death to empires!