Russia: Resistance and Other Stories

It is always nice to find confirmation of what I saw over the last two years. There is internal resistance that is slowly growing. I compare Russia to an ice flow, and it is gradually accelerating.

MO has this to say about how this is accelerating, and I am including the stats in graphic form that I put through Google Glass. It is important to understand that slowly Russia is moving towards more open resistance:

Arson of military registration and enlistment offices replaced rallies. 2023 was the year of sharp radicalization of anti-war protests in Russia

The past year, unlike 2022, was marked by fewer peaceful protests. But the number of “direct actions” increased — military registration and enlistment offices were burned in the country, rails and relay cabinets were blown up, and military units were abandoned. The authorities responded with massive repression.

Arsons and explosions. Explosions on the railway began to sound more and more often in the country — rails were blown up in Crimea , Buryatia , the border Bryansk region (twice), and the Ryazan region . Also in the Russian Federation, relay cabinets began to be set on fire en masse; the Moscow Region counted at least 10 such incidents. Minors are often put on trial for setting fire to relay cabinets: according to the Federal Penitentiary Service, 9 and 10 teenagers end up in pre-trial detention centers under terrorist charges. Arsons of military registration and enlistment offices and other administrative buildings have become more frequent in the country. People were often tricked into committing crimes.

Desertion. After mobilization, the number of military personnel increased sharply, and as a result, crimes against military service. Over the course of the year, the courts received more than 5 thousand cases of unauthorized abandonment, Mediazona calculated . Last year there were 5 times less smuggling cases, 1001 cases, the year before — 615 cases.

Flower protest. Laying flowers at the monument to Lesya Ukrainka in Moscow as a sign of solidarity with Ukraine remains one of the few ways to express one’s position. Muscovites brought carnations there in January, April, October and December, each time Ukrainian civilians died due to Russian shells hitting residential buildings. In cities where there are no monuments to Ukrainian writers, people brought flowers and soft toys to the memorials of those killed in the war or victims of political repression.

⚖️ The authorities are responding with criminal cases about “military fakes” . Almost all such cases end in long sentences (fortunately, many are done in absentia). Thus, Maxim Katz, Michael Naki, Dmitry Glukhovsky, Vladimir Milov, Marina Ovsyannikova and others received 7.8 or more years in absentia.

The Federation is responding in expected ways. It is trying to close down as fast as it can. We know police states do not like any resistance. Ergo, the cost of this is raised day by day and month by month. This is not an open society. It’s had its moments.

Then there is this from ATESH, which is hardly minor. This means that we can expect even more unrest now in the regions. Realize this is a move towards dismantling the last unrepentant empire on the planet that is Russia:

“ATESH” is expanding and creating a number of autonomous cells in the Russian Federation

Regional centers were established in: – Ichkeria (Chechnya) – Kaliningrad – Buryatia — Tyva — Ingushetia — Dagestan

Cells also operate in Siberia and Tatarstan .

We increasingly received messages about the desire to help from various regions of the Russian Federation, in particular from the above. These territories are extremely culturally different; they have their own traditions, dialects and languages, different from those imposed by Moscow.

“ATESH” will help start the fight in these regions against the Russian world, restore forgotten freedom and stop the senseless war against Ukraine. And the flame of liberation will light up and spread throughout the Russian Federation!

We encourage you to join new cells and make history together! We also ask you to provide us with information about collaborators who fled to the territory of the Russian Federation. @RF_coordinator

Geography matters; some of these are the precise northern Caucasus I have kept my eye on for the last two years. Some are in Central Asia and are some of the poorest regions. It tells me that resistance is accelerating ever so slowly. I have followed the partisans over the last two years, and there is a feeling that they know the only way to get rid of Vladimir Putin is indeed by the use of force.

Then there are the harder-to-track refuseniks. Yes, they still exist in the army. This is but an example with a list of places where they hold people:

A man conscripted from Voronezh, who recorded an appeal to Putin calling on him to end the war with Ukraine, was put in a “pit for refuseniks”

This was reported by three sources: activists of the “Way Home” movement, where mobilized Alexander Shpilevoy initially posted his video, a Russian serviceman on the “Cossack Diary” channel, and relatives of Alexander himself.

“There is no need to bury him. Thank God Sasha is alive. But he is in a difficult situation. The phone was taken. He’s being held somewhere. There is no connection. They put him in a hole, as you expected,” wrote one of Shpilevoy’s relatives in a chat.

As ASTRA previously reported, 27-year-old Alexander Shpilevoy, who was mobilized from Voronezh, recorded a video message calling for an end to the war with Ukraine. In December 2022, he told ASTRA that he recorded the video while on vacation before returning to the front.

“Do those mobilized want to go home? Do they need such a large salary, are these benefits very useful? I think I’d be right in saying no. We don’t need these 200 thousand. <…> Everyone really wants to go home. <…> Regarding the goals of the Northern Military District — “demilitarization”, “denazification”, you know, these words and goals can be interpreted as you want. And when you wanted, you say that “demilitarization” was a success. Or stretch it out indefinitely, as long as you want. What do the majority of those mobilized want? Peace or continuation of hostilities? Definitely peace,” Alexander said in the video. which was originally published in the channels “The Way Home” and deputy Stupin.

In December, in a conversation with ASTRA, Alexander said that before mobilization he worked as a storekeeper in the Red and White store. Previously, Shpilevoy took part in the “Super Ninja” show on STS. After the first video message, Shpilevoy recorded another video, where he stated that he did not plan to “discredit the RF Armed Forces.” It is unknown which “pit” the military man is in.

Let us recall that ASTRA previously found 16 camps or basements for holding refuseniks in the occupied territories of Ukraine:

1. Zaitsevo, Lugansk region;

2. Zavitne Bazhannya , Donetsk region;

3. Dokuchaevsk , Donetsk region;

4. Perevalsk, former colony 15, Lugansk region;

5. Rubizhne, basement in the commandant’s office, Lugansk region;

6. Kremennaya, Lugansk region;

7. Staromlynovka, Donetsk region;

8. Basement in Starobelsk , Lugansk region;

9. Abandoned houses in Golubovka , Lugansk region;

10. Center in Bryanka, Lugansk region;

11. Novotroitskoe , Donetsk region;

12. Children’s camp “ Beryozka “ in Makarovo, Lugansk region;

13. Amvrosievka, Donetsk region.

14. Borovoe, Kharkov region.

15. Rassypnoe , Troitsky district, Lugansk region.

16. Sofievka, “LPR”.

It’s nice to be able to identify a person. It humanizes this for us readers on the other side of the world. Yet, it also is a point of data that if the Russian army needs that many reeducation holes, it is having issues.

Granted, Russians use these holes for everything. This may also involve rape, and troops are not allowed out without paying significant amounts of cash. So, the punishment is not only on the soldier but also on the family. So what else is the motherland doing? When you read this, think of your family doctor; what’s next? Lawyers? (ok, to be fair, I suspect they are doing this already)

The Moscow Department of Health will begin listening to doctors and patients of the capital’s clinics

According to the order of the Moscow Department of Health, audio recording devices will be installed in each office in the capital’s clinics for “conducting audio monitoring.” Later, the recordings will be evaluated according to criteria — for the implementation of algorithms, the use of recommended speech modules, the degree of friendliness, etc.

The document contains recommendations on how doctors should behave with patients. According to them, doctors cannot: make fun, criticize the patient or management, use complex terminology, and also use the words “Stop”, “Enough”, “I see”.

“It is not clear from the order whether patients’ consent to audio recording will be asked or whether contacting a government agency implies that the patient a priori agrees that all intimate details, which he cannot always tell out loud even to a doctor, will be available to third parties. Total control, which makes you want to instantly become a robotic cat: a set of routine phrases, nothing personal, God forbid you distract the patient during an unpleasant procedure with side conversations: big brother is watching us)). The concept of medical confidentiality, a sacrament existing between a doctor and a patient, disappears,” says Maria Gubareva, chairman of the “Action” trade union of health workers, in a publication.

There is nothing more personal than seeing your doctor. So why are they going to do this? Well, partly because Russians who want to avoid service can pay doctors to get them off. How? With a slew of medical diagnoses that are bogus. The most extreme will be willing to spend a month or two inside a psychiatric hospital, even if that diagnosis will follow them for the rest of their lives.

Nope, not even Russians are crazy enough to give a live gun to a crazy person who has spent time in a psychiatric institution. But knowing if little Ivan is trying to avoid service by bribing a doctor would be valuable. You can also get charges against that doctor and send both to the line for discrediting the army in Z-assault squads!

And what if little Ivan is sick and not eligible for service? The fear of Z-squads will prevent some honest diagnosis. It’s the way the empire has functioned for decades, or is that centuries? So what is a little lack of privacy among friends?

This is also the country where Joseph Stalin started persecuting doctors through the Doctors Plot, and his fellow communists persecuted agronomists a generation before. Why? Science is, at times, way too objective for the empire.