It has been suggested that content related to Russia be split out and merged into the articletitled Attacks in Russia during the Russian invasion of Ukraine , which already exists. (Discuss) (March 2024) |
It has been suggested that content related to Belarus be split out and merged into the articletitled Belarusian partisan movement (2020–present) , which already exists. (Discuss) (January 2024) |
Pro-democratic and pro-Ukrainian partisan movements have emerged in Belarus and Russia following the Russian invasion of Ukraine, a major escalation of the Russo-Ukrainian War. These resistance movements act against the authoritarian governments of Alexander Lukashenko in Belarus and Vladimir Putin in Russia, as well as against civilian supporters of these authorities and the armed forces of both countries, with the aim of stopping the war. [31]
By 2022-03-07, cases of arsons of police departments were recorded in Smolensk and Krasnoyarsk. [32]
As of 5 July 2022 [update] , at least 23 attacks on military enlistment offices were recorded, 20 of which were arson. [33] The arson attacks were not a single coordinated campaign: behind them were a variety of people: from far-left to far-right groups. Sometimes they were lone actors who did not associate themselves with any movements. [34] [35] Civilian vehicles bearing the letter Z insignia (supporting the war efforts) were also set ablaze. [31]
On 2022-08-27, multiple Russian-language outlets reported that a woman named Evgenia Belova doused a parked BMW X6 with accelerant and set it ablaze in Moscow. The vehicle belonged to Yevgeny Sekretarev (Russian : Евгения Секретарева) who reportedly works for the Eighth Directorate of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation; the Directorate oversees the State Secret Protection Service handling wartime censorship. A woman detained for the arson also reportedly proclaimed her opposition to the war. [36] [37] [38] [39] [40] The woman is described as 65 years old, a patient of a local "psychoneurological clinic," and lives in the same building as Sekretarev. [41] Coverage of the incident by Radio Svoboda, mentioned a relative of the woman making the unverified claim that she was kidnapped prior to the arson by Ukrainian special forces, held for a ransom of 500,000 Russian rubles, and "hypnotized." The woman's relatives further insisted she was never against the Russian authorities, and would never have committed arson against the Russian government. [42]
The rail war in Belarus began in February 2022. Signaling equipment was destroyed in three Belarusian regions, and railway lines were blocked. As a result of these operations, the work of several branches of the Belarusian railway was disrupted.
In Russia, the movements Combat Organization of Anarcho-Communists (BOAK) and Stop the Wagons announced their sabotage activities on the railway infrastructure. According to The Insider, 63 freight trains derailed in Russia between March and June 2022, about one and a half times as much as during the same period the previous year. At the same time, the geography of wagon wrecks shifted to the west, and some trains got into accidents near military units. [34] According to Russian Railways and inspection bodies, half of the accidents are related to the poor condition of the railway tracks. [43]
Representatives of BOAK took responsibility not only for dismantling rails and railway sabotage in Sergiyev Posad near Moscow and near Kirzhach, Vladimir Oblast, but also for setting fire to cell towers (for example, in the village of Belomestnoye in the Belgorod Oblast) and even for setting fire to cars of people supporting actions of the Russian leadership. According to the anarchists themselves, their activities were largely inspired by the actions of the Belarusian partisans, who effectively resisted the Russian invasion through the territory of Belarus at the very beginning of the war. [34]
The "Stop the Wagons" movement in Russia claimed responsibility for the derailment of wagons in the Amur Oblast, due to which traffic on the Trans-Siberian Railway was stopped on 29 June, [44] [45] [46] [47] for the derailment of a train in Tver on 5 July, [48] several wagons with coal in Krasnoyarsk on 13 July, [49] as well as freight trains in the Krasnoyarsk Krai at the Lesosibirsk station on 19 July, [50] in Makhachkala overnight between 23 and 24 July (the investigating authorities of Dagestan are also considering sabotage as a probable cause of this incident) [51] [52] and on the Oktyabrskaya railway near Babaevo station on 12 August. [53] According to the map published by the movement, its activists operate on more than 30% of the territory of Russia. [54] [55]
On 2022-08-21, a bomb planted in a vehicle killed Darya Dugina; it is widely presumed the bomb was also meant to kill her father, Aleksandr Dugin. Both are identified with Nazbolism, gave statements justifying war against Ukraine, and denied atrocities such as Bucha massacre. [56] [57] The United States sanctioned both figures for their support of the regime and the war; Dugina was sanctioned for her work with Yevgeny Prigozhin in the Russian interference in the 2016 United States elections. [58]
Former State Duma deputy Ilya Ponomarev, who is based in Kyiv, said that a partisan organization called the "National Republican Army" is operating inside Russia and engaged in "overthrowing the Putin regime", and that it was behind the assassination of Dugina. The politician called the event a "momentous event" and said that the partisans inside Russia are ready for further similar attacks. [59] Ponomarev has told several outlets he has been "in touch" with representatives of the organization since April 2022. He states that the group has been involved in unspecified partisan activities. [60] In a May 2022 conference of exiles in Vilnius sponsored by the Free Russia Forum, Ponomarev appealed to attendees to support direct action within Russia. A Spektr (Russian : Спектр) reporter noted an indifferent response from the attendees. [61]
Ponomarev read the NRA's purported manifesto on a YouTube channel he owns, February Morning (Russian : Утро Февраля). [62] The text of the manifesto was also shared over February Morning's affiliated Telegram channel, Rospartizan (Russian : Роспартизан). [63] As of 26 August 2022 [update] , YouTube's metrics indicate video containing the claim of responsibility and sharing the manifesto is February Morning's most-seen video with 176,646 views. [62]
Doubts of the NRA's responsibility and its very existence have been raised by a wide variety of commentators. [64] [65] A 22 August 2022 report from Reuters says that "[Ponomarev's] assertion and the group's existence could not be independently verified." [66] The sole suspect named by Russian investigators is a Ukrainian woman whom, Russia claims, is part of its military. The Russian government has also stated that the woman fled to Estonia. [67] The governments of Ukraine and Estonia each denied any role in the assassination. [68] [69] [70]
The veracity of Ponomarev's claims notwithstanding, his endorsement of armed action against the regime resulted in his blacklisting by the Russian Action Committee, an anti-Putin exile group. According to the committee's statement, this was because he "called for terrorist attacks on Russian territory." The committee's statement also implied that Dugina was a "civilian" who "did not take part in the armed confrontation," and condemned denunciations of Aleksandr Dugin following the attack as "a demonstrative rejection of normal human empathy for the families of the victims." [71] [72]
In late February 2023 an AWACS Beriev A-50U Russian spy plane in Machulishchy, Belarus was reported as damaged. Via Telegram, the organization BYPOL claimed responsibility for what it claimed was a drone attack. Exiled Belarusian dissident Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya responded to news of the attack stating, "I am proud of all Belarusians who continue to resist the Russian hybrid occupation of Belarus & fight for the freedom of Ukraine." [73] [74]
On 2 March 2023, the Russian Volunteer Corps claimed responsibility for an attack in the Bryansk Oblast near Russia's border with Belarus in which it allegedly killed one and took hostages. [75] [76]
On 22 May 2023, two Ukraine-based Russian opposition partisan groups, the Freedom of Russia Legion and the Russian Volunteer Corps, claimed to have attacked targets in Grayvoronsky District of Belgorod Oblast. The Freedom of Russia Legion claimed the groups took control of several border towns in the district, with fighting ongoing. Russian authorities said the attacks were conducted by a Ukrainian sabotage and reconnaissance group that crossed the border into Belgorod Oblast. In response, Russia's counter-terrorist operation regime was imposed in the region to combat the incursion. It is the largest incursion into Russian territory since the beginning of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
The Russian authorities were forced to tighten security measures on the railways.
On 27 April, the Belarusian authorities approved amendments to the Criminal Code, providing for the possibility of applying the death penalty "for attempted acts of terrorism."
On 8 May 2022, the Telegram channel of the movement was blocked. According to their own statements, they were blocked "after the publication of a map of railway resistance, which covered over 30% of the territory of Russia." [77] [78] On 19 July, the website of Stop the Wagons was blocked by Roskomnadzor in Russia at the request of the Prosecutor General's Office. [79] [80]
In August 2022, a court in Moscow fined the Telegram messenger 7 million Russian rubles (quoted by TASS as equivalent to US$113,900) for refusing to remove channels providing instructions for railway sabotage and containing "propaganda pushing the ideology of anarchism." [81] [82] [83]
Ilya Vladimirovich Ponomarev is a Russian-Ukrainian politician who was a member of the Russian State Duma from 2007 to 2016.
Mikhail Vladimirovich Mishustin is a Russian politician and economist serving as the prime minister of Russia since 16 January 2020. He previously served as the director of the Federal Taxation Service from 2010 to 2020.
The Free Russia Forum is a conference of the Russian opposition, held twice a year in Vilnius (Lithuania). The forum was founded in March 2016 by Garry Kasparov and Ivan Tyutrin, the former executive director of the Russian democratic movement Solidarnost.
Belarus, a close ally of Russia, has supported its eastern neighbour in the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Before the start of the offensive, Belarus allowed the Russian Armed Forces to perform weeks-long military drills on its territory; however, the Russian troops did not exit the country after they were supposed to finish. Belarus allowed Russia to stage part of the invasion from its territory, giving Russia the shortest possible land route to Ukraine's capital, Kyiv. However, these forces withdrew within two months, thus ceasing land-based military operations originating from Belarus and resulting in the recapture of the Ukrainian side of the border region by Ukraine. Despite this, the situation along the border remains tense, with Ukraine closing the border checkpoints leading into Belarus, bar special cases.
Rail sabotage is one of the Belarusian forms of grassroots action opposing the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
On Amendments to the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation and Articles 31 and 151 of the Criminal Procedure Code of the Russian Federation is a group of federal laws promulgated by the Russian government during the Russian invasion of Ukraine. These laws establish administrative and criminal punishments for "discrediting" or dissemination of "unreliable information" about the Russian Armed Forces, other Russian state bodies and their operations, and the activity of volunteers aiding the Russian Armed Forces, and for calls to impose sanctions against Russia, Russian organizations and citizens. These laws are an extension of Russian fake news laws and are sometimes referred to as the fakes laws.
The Combat Organization of Anarcho-Communists is a militant anarcho-communist organization in Eastern Europe, part of the Belarusian and Russian partisan movement. It aims for social revolution and a libertarian socialist society. Since the start of the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, it has sabotaged railway infrastructure in Russia and Belarus, as well as attacking Russian military commissariats and telecommunications. According to The Insider, the group has become "the most active 'subversive' force" in Russia since the war began.
Darya Aleksandrovna Dugina, also known under the pen name Daria Platonova, was a Russian journalist, political scientist, and activist. She was the daughter of Aleksandr Dugin, a supporter of Vladimir Putin and a far-right political philosopher, whose support for the Russian invasion of Ukraine she shared.
The National Republican Army is an alleged underground partisan group of Russians inside Russia working towards the violent overthrow of the Putin government. The group claims to be a member of the Irpin Declaration, an alleged alliance of anti-government Russian militant groups.
The Russian Action Committee is a coalition movement of the Russian opposition in exile, formed on May 20, 2022 at the II Anti-War Conference of the Free Russia Forum in Vilnius, Lithuania. The movement was co-founded by Garry Kasparov, and Mikhail Khodorkovsky.
A series of Molotov cocktail arson attacks and shootings have taken place in Russian military commissariat registration and enlistment offices since the start of the country's invasion of Ukraine in 2022. Other governmental buildings have also been attacked in multiple regions of Russia. Part of the Russian partisan and anti-war movements, the attacks were spurred by several factors, including the outbreak of the invasion of Ukraine, the deployment of Russian conscripts to the front line, the start of spring conscription, and rumors about possible mobilization in the country, which were later found to be true. Commissariat offices recruit servicemen to the Russian Army and choose who is eligible and ineligible for service. The attacks are not a single coordinated campaign; behind them are a variety of people, from left-wing anarchists and scammers to far-right groups and assorted lone wolf actors.
Stop the Wagons is a Russian anti-war movement that engaged in sabotaging Russian railways in various ways to prevent the transport of equipment, fuel, ammunition and other supplies to the war in Ukraine.
The Association of Security Forces of Belarus, also known as BYPOL, is a Belarusian organization that was created by former employees of law enforcement agencies to counter the Belarusian authorities. The association has channels on YouTube and Telegram, on which it publishes various videos related to the security forces, and also doxes law enforcement officers.
The rail war began in different regions of Russia in the spring of 2022 after a similar rail war in Belarus.
Busły liaciać is a Belarusian opposition resistance group founded on 13 November 2020 and fighting against the Alexander Lukashenko government. Included together with the Cyber Partisans in the association "Supraciŭ".
The Russian Volunteer Corps is a far-right paramilitary unit of Russian citizens, based in Ukraine. It was formed in August 2022, during the Russian invasion of Ukraine, to fight against the government of Vladimir Putin. The group reportedly consists of Russian emigrants who are primarily united by their opposition to Putin. According to Ukrainian military officials, the group is not a part of the Ukrainian armed forces. Assessments of the ideology of this group vary from far-right and white nationalist to neo-Nazi. Its leader is reportedly Denis Kapustin, a Neo-Nazi who in 2019 was banned from the Schengen Area.
National Socialism / White Power Crew, is a Neo-Nazi extremist group operating in Russia, recognized by the Supreme Court of Russia as a terrorist organization.
The Black Bridge is a Russian partisan movement opposed to the rule of Vladimir Putin. The organization supports the territorial integrity of Ukraine.
The Congress of People's Deputies is a meeting of former deputies of different levels and convocations from Russia, claiming to be the transitional parliament of the Russian Federation or its possible successor. Former State Duma deputy Ilya Ponomarev became the public initiator of the congress. Sessions of the 1st Congress were held on 4–7 November 2022 in Jabłonna, Poland.
The Irpin Declaration is an alleged political union between the Freedom of Russia Legion, the National Republican Army and the Russian Volunteer Corps formed on 31 August 2022. The existence of the National Republican Army has never been confirmed, and the Russian Volunteer Corps denies ever signing the declaration.
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