"A terrorist means a terrorist"

The organizer of the "march for the federalization of the Kuban" is preparing to defend Ukraine as part of a volunteer detachment

The Russian authorities included in the federal "list of extremists and terrorists" organizers of the march for the federalization of the Kuban. " A group of opposition movements and just residents of Krasnodar planned to arrange this in many ways to arrange on August 17, one day with a march "For the federalization of Siberia." Participants in the Siberian march were detained, but later released. The Krasnodarians were less fortunate: two people in this case are now in jail, they are charged with extremism and in actions aimed at violating the territorial integrity of the Russian Federation, two more were put on the wanted list. One of the organizers of the “march for the federalization of the Kuban”, a psychologist from Krasnodar, Petr Lyubchenkov, told Radio Liberty that he was in Ukraine, asked for political asylum in this country and is now undergoing military training before the service in one of the Ukrainian volunteer battalions.

The “marches for federalization” were conceived as shares in the support of Ukraine, their name was to emphasize the absurdity of Russia's support for the requirements of separatists in eastern Ukraine - the organizers themselves have repeatedly talked about this. However, the Russian special services responded to these opposition plans with all seriousness. In Novosibirsk, the organizers of the march, including activists of radical left -wing movements, were detained a few days before August 17. All groups on the social network "VKontakte" dedicated to the march were blocked. An interview with the Russian BBC service with the Novosibirsk artist Artem Loskutov , also one of the organizers of the march, almost led to blocking the radio station in Russia .

At the beginning of September, when the "marches for federalization" began to forget, in Krasnodar, the activist of the Solidarity movement Daria Polyudova , who was accused at once under two articles of the Criminal Code, was arrested for two months: 280, part 2 - "Public calls for extremist activities committed on the Internet" and 280.1, part 2 - "Public calls for the implementation of actions," Public calls for actions, " aimed at violating the territorial integrity of the Russian Federation committed using the Internet. " For each of them, Polyudova threatens up to 5 years in prison. On September 26, another activist of Solidarity in Krasnodar, Sergey Titorenko , was arrested in the same case. Two more organizers of the action, psychologist Petr Lyubchenkov and anarchist Vyacheslav Martynov left for Ukraine and were put on the federal wanted list. On Friday, September 26, the surnames of Lyubchenkov, Martynov and Polyudova appeared on the Rosfinmonitoring website in the "List of terrorists and extremists ." According to the Federal Law "On Combating the legalization (laundering) of income received by criminal means and financing of terrorism", to the persons included in this list, restrictions on the expenditure of funds placed in their accounts in banks are applied - they cannot withdraw more than 10 thousand rubles a month from their bank account, all money transfers to their account are blocked. Pyotra Lyubchenkov, with whom Radio Liberty managed to contact, is now more concerned about this restriction, but the fate of his associates arrested in Russia.

Your browser does not support HTML5

Petr Lyubchenkov - on the inclusion of himself by the Russian authorities in the "List of terrorists and extremists"

Peter Lyubchenkov

- Peter, how do you live now with a loud title of "terrorist and extremist"?

- Well, very, very unusual, there were different feelings and thoughts about this, now I have already got used to it, a terrorist means a terrorist. Now for me the most important thing is that the people who are arrested are released. In our case, as far as I know, four people go through. This is me, Daria Polyudova, Vyacheslav Martynov, Sergey Titorenko was arrested two days ago in Krasnodar. I have the feeling that the FSB decided to simply “equalize”, because of the three organizers of the action, two fled to Ukraine, so they arrested one more. Sergei Titorenko had nothing to do with the action, but morally supported us, he is an activist of "solidarity" and an environmental activist, I am familiar with him on environmental actions.

- There are no fears that they will be used as hostages? You and Vyacheslav Martynov did not go out with a proposal to return and appear before the court in exchange for the liberation of the arrested associates?

- Not yet, but if such a proposal had been received, I would, of course, exchanged myself for them, although I have no faith for the word of the FSB and the Putin regime.

- How did the idea arrange a “march for the federalization of the Kuban”, what is the share of a joke in this story, and what is the proportion of truth?

The main idea of this action was to express support to Ukraine and show the whole world how hypocrite the Kremlin regime is

- We were absolutely serious in the sense that the main idea of this action was to express support to Ukraine and show the whole world how hypocritical the Kremlin regime was, how false and hypocritical Putin was. This was the main idea of the action, it was shared by everyone who took part in it. In this regard, our action was a success, because the "marches for federalization" of Siberia and the Kuban were perceived in Ukraine with great enthusiasm, the people were happy that there was forces in Russia, which could help them in this unequal battle. Unfortunately, we, activists, paid dearly for this.

-In Novosibirsk, the action did not take place at all, in Krasnodar, as I understand it, you still managed to go outside. How many people gathered a "march for the federalization of the Kuban" and how did all this happen?

- The fact is that until the very last moment we tried to do everything within the framework of the Law of the Russian Federation. We refused to conduct the procession, from the rally, because it was not agreed by the authorities. We decided to make simply a “popular gathering”, without banners, posters or agitation. Under the current legislation, this is the only action that is possible without coordination. The action turned out to be small, only 30 people came. Most of the Krasnodar simply did not know that such a promotion was taking place because we were blocked on the Internet, they were filmed in the press, for example, Roskomnadzor forced Roskomnadzor forced our interviews to take off the New Times. The Krasnodar press all the more could not publish this. The whole world was aware that such an action was planned, but the Krasnodar is not.

- It seems to you that the only thing is in censorship or Krasnodar is really extremely small to support Ukraine in conflict with Russia?

- Most people here are zombie, run and shout "Our Crimea!", "In Ukraine, fascists!" There are a small number of people who manage to think freely and independently, but they are fragmented. This was also one of the tasks of the "march for the federalization of the Kuban" - to unite people who think freely, to support them, including them.

- Why was the authorities reaction to this campaign in Krasnodar - arrests, accusations of extremism, now the organizers' entering the list of “terrorists”? In Novosibirsk, in comparison with this, the organizers, one might say, "got off with a slight fright."

Even the Siberians who came to Krasnodar said: "It is strange, the police rules everything, we have otherwise"

- For the Kuban, this is usually and normal, because it is a region where the security forces rule: police, FSB. Even the Siberians who came to Krasnodar and with whom I talked, said: "It is strange, the police rules you all, all issues need to be resolved with the police, we have otherwise, there are some other authoritative people who solve issues, and the police took everything here." I also have the idea that one of the Kuban bosses in the FSB decided to earn new stars in the shoulder straps in this way, so they are now hard to grab everyone and write down in terrorists.

- Peter, you are now in Odessa - what are you doing in Ukraine?

- I am a psychologist, I work as a psychologist, asked for political asylum here. When at the end of August the direct aggression of Russia in Ukraine, the entry of troops and the occupation of Novoazovsk , had already taken, I decided that I would no longer hide behind the guys who defend my freedom at the front too. I decided that I would go to the volunteer battalion, because there was a direct danger of the occupation of Odessa, and I can’t stay here if the Russians are occupied by Odessa. I don't want to run either. Now I undergo military training, learned to shoot from a machine gun and many other things. Simple Odessites are preparing for a possible occupation, undergo military training, learn to wage a partisan war, volunteers dig trenches, strengthen checkpoints, and help the army.

- You say “if the Russians are occupied by Odessa” - that is, you no longer consider themselves Russian?

During the war, everything is simple: there are ours, there is an enemy. In this case, we call the enemy "Russians"

- This is such a dichotomy. We say “our” and “Russians” here, regardless of the ethnicity of the one who says. During the war, everything is simple: there are ours, there is an enemy. In this case, we call the enemy "Russians", although Odessa is a Russian-speaking city and the majority of the population speaks Russian.

The inclusion of opposition activists in the list of Rosfinmonitoring terrorists, meanwhile, is becoming a tendency: today it became known that the Khabarovsk LGBT activist Andrei Marchenko is included in the list-for a post in support of Ukraine on his Facebook, which was written in June (now this record has been deleted). The fact that his accounts in Sberbank and Alfa-Bank were blocked, Markchenko wrote on September 21, a criminal case was opened against him under Article 280 of the Criminal Code-“Public calls for extremist activity”.