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Stop political terror in Russia!From: Praxis Center Date: 2009/1/24 Dear comrades, On 19 January our comrade, human rights lawyer Stanislav Markelov and young anti-fascist journalist Anastasia Baburova were assassinated in the center of Moscow. Stanislav Markelov, 34, defended the interests of victims of the Russian government's policy in Chechnya, anti-fascists, activists of independent trade unions and social movements. As a convinced democrat and socialist he participated in various campaigns for justice and freedom in Russia and internationally. As some of you may remember, he was a co-chair of the Praxis seminar on the situation in the North Caucasus at the Russian Social Forum in St-Petersburg, 2006. The murder of Markelov and Baburova is definitely an act of political terror. Most probably, responsibility for this crime belongs to ultra-right gangsters, whose activity is growing in Russia every day. Attacks on "non-white" people on the streets of Moscow and other cities became something usual, and several prominent anti-fascists were killed recently. Other victims of political terrorism are oppositional journalists, principled critics of the existing Russian political regime -- Anna Politkovskaya, Magomed Evloev, Mikhail Beketov... The growth of pro-fascist forces in Russia is objectively encouraged by the whole political atmosphere in the country. While acts of political terrorism mostly go unpunished, the authorities and their mass media are engaged in hysterical propaganda of "patriotism," authoritarianism, great-power sentiments, hostility towards external and internal "enemies." Under such conditions, criminals against humanity (both of present and past) are painted as "heroes" and those struggling against them as "traitors." The last article by Markelov, "Patriotism as diagnosis" (published on Praxis web-site) was devoted precisely to denouncing these awful ideas. And one hour before his assassination, Stanislav spoke at the press-conference protesting against pre-term release from prison of the war criminal colonel Budanov, who raped and killed a Chechen woman. Stanislav was a legal representative of her relatives, he received many threats from supporters of "heroic officer" Budanov -- and was killed a few days after the latter's release... The release of Budanov and the murder of Markelov are certainly linked, even if not directly: both characterize the real situation in Russia today. Though now the world civil society can't stop the political terrorism in Russia by its own forces, it could be able to exert pressure on Russian authorities by showing that their passive or even objectively encouraging attitude towards escalating fascist violence ruins the international "image" of the Russian state, finally discrediting it in the eyes of the global public opinion. Therefore, we ask you to send letters to Russian Embassies in your countries, expressing indignation about political terrorism in Russia, demanding thorough investigation of the murder of Stanislav Markelov and Anastasia Baburova and punishment of its organizers. Praxis Research and Educational Center.
Russian Embassies: russianembassy@mindspring.com (US) and office@rusemblon.org (UK) Model Letter: Mr. Ambassador, I am writing to express my concern about the Jan. 19 assassination of human rights lawyer Stanislav Markelov and young anti-fascist journalist Anastasia Baburova in Moscow in an atmosphere of increasing nationalist violence and legal impunity for killers. Please urge your Government to take strong and effective measures to reign in fascist violence, bring the perpetrators to justice, and prevent future assaults on journalists, lawyers and human rights advocates -- scandalous political crimes that seriously undermine the credibility of the Russian Federation in the international sphere. (signed, etc)
Note from Richard Greeman: Praxis established the Victor Serge Public Library in Moscow in 1997 to make non-Stalinist left-wing books in different languages available for the first time to Russian scholars and activists. Over the past ten years, Praxis has translated and published for the first time in Russian several works of Victor Serge as well as Voline's Unknown Revolution, Rubel's Marx Against the Marxists, Dunayevskaya's Marxism and Freedom, and collections of papers of our annual International Conferences in Russia and Ukraine. Praxis also participates in social movements fighting for human rights and freedoms, social justice, popular self-government, environmental justice, etc., and puts out a paper, Radical Thought (now online since our printer refused to print our criticisms of the government). Last week, the authorities informed us that the Serge Library (with over 6,000 books) is being evicted from the premises we occupy in Moscow, where for both political and financial reasons space is extremely difficult to find.
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