Rosfinmonitoring included the anarchist movement "People's Self-Defense" in the list of "terrorists and extremists"

Rosfinmonitoring included the anarchist movement “People's Self-Defense” in the list of “terrorists and extremists”.

Earlier in September 2022, a court in Chelyabinsk recognized People's Self-Defense as terrorist and banned it in Russia.

The case file states that all “participants” of the movement, which consists of more than 400 people, carry out “terrorist” and “extremist” actions. At the same time, ex-participants of “People’s Self-Defense” who emigrated stated that the movement was crushed by security forces back in 2018–2019 and is no longer functioning.

Security forces use People's Self-Defense to persecute anarchists who have nothing to do with the movement.

Thus, the investigation names Azat Miftakhov, a graduate student of the Faculty of Mechanics and Mathematics at Moscow State University, as a member of the People’s Self-Defense, who in January 2021 was sentenced to six years in a general regime colony in the case of a broken window in the United Russia office.

In addition, the FSB insisted on a connection with the People's Self-Defense of Chelyabinsk anarchists Anastasia Safonova and Dmitry Tsibukovsky, who in September 2022 were sentenced to a year and nine months in a general regime colony in the case of the banner “FSB is the main terrorist.”

Context

• People's Self-Defense emerged in 2013 after the split of the anarchist organization Autonomous Action. Since that time, the FSB has repeatedly detained the “participants”, charging them with various criminal articles.

• The persecution of People's Self-Defense began in 2018, when 17-year-old student Mikhail Zhlobitsy blew himself up in the reception room of the Arkhangelsk FSB department. The security forces then linked the explosion to the activities of the movement.