Translated material
Spiders from Russia. What you need to know about the PMC "Redan"
On the morning of February 28 , three searches were held in Ukrainian Kharkov with possible organizers of mass fights of adolescents. Those are allegedly involved in the Redan PMC - - a teenage movement with roots from Russia (PMCs are like a private military company, and Redan is read through “Yo” - drone).
It became known recently, after a mass fight in the Moscow shopping center. At the moment, in Ukraine , 18 telegram channels have already been blocked, which collected people for fights, all this resembles the game "Blue Kit" when the teenagers allegedly performed suicide because of groups in social networks. Then the story turned out to be in many ways conceived and exaggerated. It seems that the same can be said about the Redan PMC. In parental chats, they are already discussing by what signs to understand that the child was in the Redan PMC. However, it is not so easy to find it-it seems that this subculture exists for the most part in the media and the fears of parents. The police suspect that the movement leads from Russia to shake Ukraine from the inside. What kind of movement this is, explained by the journalists of the publication "Babel" Oksana Rasulova and Tatyana Logvinenko , editor Yevgeny Spirin . With the permission of the publication, we give this text below.
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What is the Redan PMC? Is this really a private military company?
No.
PMC "Redan" - Russian teenage movement. Its participants were inspired by Japanese comics (manga) Hunter X Hunter, which has been published since 1998. In the manga universe, there are so -called hunters - an organization that is looking for treasures, rare animals, but also kills by order.
Another group of manga is the "Gene Redan", that is, the "Fantom Brigade". Its participants rob and kill. Each member of the gang has a spider tattoo, so they are called “spiders”. Fans of manga wear clothes with the image of this animal. Another symbol of the fans is the number 4. They say that it was chosen because of the consonance of the Japanese name with the word "death" .
Redan’s opponents are called “offices” - this is a near -football subculture. "OFA" are aggressive against those who dress or look unusual.
Russian journalists talked with a member of the Redan PMC community. He said that the group includes schoolchildren of 14-16 years old who love anime, imitate the “edan” in the form: they wear black clothes, dye their hair black. It adds that participants in the movement do not consider themselves a subculture, although it may "someone sees them like that." They just want to "do not find fault with them." And the "PMC" was added for the sake of a joke, because it is a popular abbreviation in Russia.
So in Russia there really are a lot of such teenagers?
Nobody knows for sure.
The Redan PMC in Russia began to talk on February 22. Then, on the food court of the Moscow shopping center "Aviation Park" , adolescents staged a big fight . Media, citing social networks, wrote that this happened because of the appearance-one company did not like how members of another were dressed. And on February 23, another brawl occurred near the Moscow metro station "Lubyanka" - its two participants were taken under house arrest . In total, on February 23-24 , more than 350 people were detained in the capital of Russia and delivered to the branches, 319 of them were minors. And on February 26, teenagers also fought in the shopping center in St. Petersburg. Then more than 130 people were detained. So in Rostov-on-Don, Novosibirsk, Kazan.
Before the brawl in Moscow, Media did not write about the Redan PMC. One of their large groups on the VKontakte social network was founded back in 2015. The group changed the name several times. This happens in the Ukrainian telegram channels-now the Redana dedicated to the Local News and places where the summons are distributed.
The journalist of the Russian edition of Mediazon, Yegor Skovoroda , says that before messages in the media have not heard about this movement, although his publication works with such topics.
“It seems to me that these were just separate publicity publics who joke in jokingly to the name“ PMC ”and wore a merch rapper Shadowraze with spiders, but this was not a large scale, ” he explains. “There was no movement as such before the news (about its existence).”
He says that adolescents habitually gathered in the Moscow shopping center, where in winter there is warm and cheap food, and there were household conflicts and skirmishes between different groups. A fight in the Aviation Park shopping center hit the video, and therefore they began to talk about the movement of PMCs Redan.
“It has rushed, ” says Yegor. “ At first they began to talk about the movement of adolescents, who beat everyone in a row, and then the real“ arrows ”began between informals and“ sports ”teenagers, as often happens-they grabbed this topic and entered their local showdowns into it. But this is a story from an empty place, one-day theme. I think that adolescents are tired of playing, nothing really similar to the movement. There is no. "
Despite this, “Japanese comics” are already planning in Russia - such an idea is being considered in Roskomnadzor. In 2021, 1,900 links to the anime series were already deleted in Russia, and in 2013 29 Japanese comics were banned.
And what is happening in Ukraine? In many cities, aggressive teenagers really fight?
Not everything is as large as it looks.
On February 27, in Kiev and Kharkov, the police tore the mass skirmishes of the supposedly PMC Redan. Participants detained. How many of them were in Kyiv, were not reported. In Kharkov, the police installed 245 involved, including only 30 adults. They had knives, castes and gas cans . Their parents were drawn up by 72 administrative protocols, and in total two criminal cases were opened. Three possible organizers on February 28 conducted searches .
They learned about the collection of adolescents thanks to the operational group and arrived ahead of time.
“There were no such clashes and mass meetings in the city before, ” says Sergey Bolvinov, the head of the investigative department of the Kharkov region. “None of the detainees, we did not see the symbols with spiders, but some were dressed in pants in the cage - in a word, it looked strange, like adolescents. Some in interrogations recognized that they were in subculture, but not all.”
Bulvinov says that the main goal is not to put the children in the colony, but to understand who organized it and where did the money come from. He is sure that the Russian Federation is involved in the development of traffic in Ukraine, but this is still being checked - the organizers have not yet been announced suspicions.
In other cities, it also did not reach the fight. On February 26, in Ivano-Frankivsk, several dozen teenagers in the city center were searched for by representatives of the Redan PMC. No one was injured, on the way the teenagers shouted "Glory to Ukraine", near the administration they sang a national anthem and parted. In Cherkasy, adolescents were also going to look for opponents. PMC "Redan" tried to gather in Vinnitsa , Zhitomir , Lviv , Lutsk . In social networks, channels of fans and opponents of the Redan PMC were created.
Sources of Babel in the National Police say that about 700 adolescents were taken from February 26 to February 28 to departments. The average age is 13-15 years old, but there are 19-year-olds.
The detention of adolescents in Kharkov, where they allegedly planned a fight between supporters and opponents of the Redan PMC. Photos of the National Police of Ukraine
"Children" are pumped up, they know about Article 163 of the Criminal Code (violation of the secrets of correspondence, the drone ), - they say in the police. - Ordinary children are not "golden youth" and not asocial. Their parents are shocked that the children went to the meeting (PMC "Redan"). We are talking with them about the improper performance of parental duties, about criminal liability, which threatens with 14 years, if someone perishes or suffers from behind a child. "
Police, cyber police, and SBU joined the search and detention of adolescents and organizers of clashes. 18 telegram channels collected adolescents have already been blocked. However, in this social network it is difficult to block them, easier - on Facebook and on Instagram.
At the same time, the sources of the publication in the police are confident that the Redan PMCs are intentionally heated and that this is a Russian information and psychological operation.
"Firstly, this movement is only in Ukraine and in Russia (it was also noticed in Belarus- a drone ). Secondly, the speed of its distribution is impressive-on February 22 there were the first riots in Moscow, and already on the 26th-at first in three regions, and the next day already at 16. Such speed indicates that this is controlled."
Alena Romayuk , a researcher of misinformation, also believes that Redan PMCs in Ukraine can control from Russia. She says that until February 22 there is practically no publications about this.
"In some Ukrainian media they write that the movement is opposed to migrants from the Caucasus, but there is no such problem in Ukraine. Unlike Russia," she says.
On February 28, Romaniuk investigated groups where the Redan PMC is collected. She says that groups in cities have from 30 to 500 participants. Three or four people are usually active. The chats are Ukrainian -speaking, but in the messages there are strange, according to Romanyuk, formulations: for example, in the Lutsk group of "OFNIKS" wrote "Down with the Redanas", and in Kharkov and Chernigov a meeting "in 15 in Kyiv" was appointed (usually this is written when the country is in several sentries. Ukraine is located in the same time zone and the Russian Federation - the Russian Federation - the Russian Federation - the Russian Federation - the Russian Federation - the Russian Federation - the Russian Federation - the Russian Federation - the Russian Federation - the Russian Federation - the Russian Federation - the Russian Federation - No). Links to the main channels lead to Russian chats, and in Ukrainian publishes a video from Russia. Alena did not meet a photo of Ukrainian teenagers with symbols of Spider.
"In some Russian telegram channels, they write that this is generally" the Ukrainian IPSO (information psychological operation. Now they call any information scary or sowing panic) "or" The West is trying to ruin us, " says Romayuk.
Meanwhile, in Ukraine, channels that are not related to movement are already renamed - they add the word "redan" to the name in order to gain subscribers.