Act & Punishment: The Pussy Riot Trials

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Re: Act & Punishment: The Pussy Riot Trials

Postby admin » Sun Aug 12, 2018 3:18 am

Rightwing Russian activists attack Moscow art exhibition: Conservative Christian group takes offence over sculpture show depicting naked Christ and heads of John the Baptist.
The Moscow Times reports
by Ivan Nechepurenko and Michele Berdy
The Guardian
Tue 18 Aug 2015 02.00 EDT Last modified on Thu 22 Feb 2018 12.25 EST

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View of the Manezh exhibition hall in central Moscow. Photograph: Maxim Marmur/AFP/Getty Images

Russia has been accused of encouraging religious intolerance after rightwing activists attacked a major art exhibit in Moscow, claiming it offended their ultra-conservative beliefs and was therefore illegal under recent laws.

Members of God’s Will, a Christian group led by self-proclaimed missionary Dmitry “Enteo” Tsorionov, vandalised the Sculptures We Don’t See exhibit at the Manezh, a vast exhibition space next to Red Square, on Friday.

During the attack activists shouted that the works on display were offensive to people of faith and violated legislation introduced to deter protests such as that carried out by Pussy Riot in Moscow’s main cathedral in 2012.

In a video of the incident one of the activists rips a linoleum engraving of a naked Christ made by Vadim Sidur, known as the Soviet Henry Moore, off its plinth. She then throws it on the floor and stamps on it.

The group’s leader Enteo targeted a work by another artist, Megasoma Mars. This sculpture was titled Beheading of St John the Baptist #2 and comprised a series of heads displayed on plates. Enteo seized one of the heads and smashed the plate it had been on.


As a result, four works by Sidur and one Mars were damaged, said a spokesperson for the gallery. Sidur’s engravings have been on display in a museum dedicated to the sculptor for 20 years without any problem, the exhibit’s curator Vera Trakhtenberg added.

The spokeman said the gallery would file a complaint with the police.

But Enteo, who is famous for high-profile attacks on cultural events, said it was the art gallery that had violated the law. During his stunt he can be heard to say: “Jesus Christ and the Virgin Mary are being mocked. This is punishable under the criminal code.”

Legistlation making “offending religious feelings” a crime was signed into law by Vladimir Putin in 2013 in response to an anti-governmnet protest by members of Pussy Riot in Moscow’s Christ the Saviour cathedral.


The law, which carries up to a year in prison, does not clearly specify what qualifies as an offence.

Visitors to the exhibit attempted to protect the works during the attack. One of them, Lyudmila Dyagileva, called the activists “fanatics and extremists whose actions have nothing to do with faith and Christianity”.

“If they get away with it, it will send a message that you can do anything you want,” she said. “It is a signal that you can destroy everything if the authorities do nothing.”

Enteo was detained briefly by the police on Friday before being released the same evening.

On Sunday he staged another protest, this time in front of the Manezh, in which he verbally attacked two elderly visitors. He said the pair could not be true believers and should be sent to a labour camp.


High-ranking members of the Russian Orthodox Church have criticised Enteo’s activities.

What so-called Orthodox activists do has nothing to do with religion
-- Church spokesperson Vladimir Legoida


“What so-called Orthodox activists do, as a rule, has nothing to do with religion,” Vladimir Legoida, a spokesman for the Moscow Patriarchate, wrote on Sunday, describing Sidur as “an artist acclaimed around the world”.

The government has also condemned Enteo’s God’s Will movement.

The head of the presidential human rights council, Mikhail Fedotov, compared Enteo’s actions with those of “barbarians from the Islamic State,” Russian news site Interfax reported.


Konstantin Kosachyov, head of the international affairs committee in the Russian parliament’s upper chamber, the Federation Council, called the trashing of the exhibit “disgusting”.

A similar incident took place on Saturday in Kaliningrad, Russia’s Baltic exclave.

During the Franz Kafka and George Orwell Intellectual Forum, a group of activists rushed into the open-air venue shouting: “We are patriots of Russia and you have sold yourselves to the US State Department,” and threatened to burn everything there, a witness of the incident wrote on Facebook.

Gaslighters will accuse others of actions — even when there is direct evidence that they are engaging in those same behaviors. So why do gaslighters do this? They are doing pre-emptive strikes and/or are projecting.

First, the pre-emptive strike tactic. The gaslighter is cheating — they are planning the secret meetings with their lovers, and getting a rush from it. They are invested in keeping up the charade. To keep you off-kilter, they start accusing you of cheating. The goal is to keep you so busy defending yourself and being emotionally distraught that you don’t have enough time to pay attention to the gaslighter’s own behavior. By accusing you, the gaslighter has bought themselves time. The gaslighter can go as far as claiming they saw you out with someone — when in fact you were at home waiting for the gaslighter to show up late from work again. The gaslighter has you in a bind — you can’t prove that something never happened. But you try and try to prove to them that you did nothing wrong — but whatever evidence you produce is not good enough for the gaslighter. You become more concerned about being falsely accused than paying attention to the gaslighter’s own behavior.

The gaslighter may even present “evidence” to others of being manipulated by the victim. This evidence may be completely fabricated by the gaslighter, or the gaslighter takes facts and manipulates them, or “forgets” to share them. For example, the gaslighter tells your friends they are sure you are cheating because you “claimed” you were working late a few nights this week. You actually were working late a few nights this week — to earn extra money in overtime. But the gaslighter conveniently leaves this fact out when badmouthing you to your friends. When you remind the gaslighter that you told them you were working late, they deny you ever told them this — and then they bring up another reason why they are “convinced” you are cheating.

Let’s say the gaslighter in your life is addicted to heroin. You suspect they have stolen money from you to feed their addiction. Before even getting a chance to confront them, the gaslighter calmly tells you that they are concerned you are an alcoholic. You immediately go into defense mode — no one has ever accused you of this before, and it is a shock. It throws you into a tailspin. The gaslighter brings up times where they knew you were drunk — but you don’t recall any of these times. The gaslighter may even accuse you of blacking out, and claims that’s why you can’t remember. You start questioning your sanity — and this is exactly the exact goal of the gaslighter. Meanwhile, the gaslighter keeps using and stealing.

Besides direct contact with the victim and their family and friends, the gaslighter also uses social media as a way to accuse and deflect from their own behavior. The gaslighter knows that once something is posted on social media, the information travels quickly. The gaslighter is also in a position of power on social media by never answering any questions about the truth of their claims, thus perpetuating the gaslighter's lie.


-- Why Gaslighters Accuse You of Gaslighting: Accusing you of their own behavior is a classic tactic of gaslighters, by Stephanie A. Sarkis Ph.D.


Jordan Reed contributed to this report. A version of this article originally appeared on The Moscow Times
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Re: Act & Punishment: The Pussy Riot Trials

Postby admin » Sun Aug 12, 2018 4:10 am

Why Gaslighters Accuse You of Gaslighting: Accusing you of their own behavior is a classic tactic of gaslighters.
by Stephanie A. Sarkis Ph.D.
Posted Feb 13, 2017

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Gaslighters, people who try to control others through manipulation, will often accuse you of behaviors that they are engaged in themselves. This is a classic manipulation tactic. Read more to learn why this tactic works so well.

In the article Gaslighting: Know It and Identify It to Protect Yourself, I described gaslighting as a series of manipulation tactics used to discredit you, keep you off-balance, and have you question your reality. The gaslighter uses these tactics in order to get “revenge” or gain control over you. Gaslighting tactics include:

Blatantly lying.
Splitting — pitting you against a friend or family member.
Working to align others against you.
Telling others that you are crazy, unstable, or manipulative.
Lying about things they said and did, even though you swear those things happened.
Telling you they don’t like your family and friends — but for vague reasons.


Many gaslighters:

Cheat in relationships, yet they accuse their victims of cheating.
Accuse their victims of being addicts, when they are the true addicts.
Accuse their victims of manipulation, when they are the ones who manipulate.


Gaslighters will accuse others of actions — even when there is direct evidence that they are engaging in those same behaviors. So why do gaslighters do this? They are doing pre-emptive strikes and/or are projecting.

Pre-Emptive Strike

First, the pre-emptive strike tactic. The gaslighter is cheating — they are planning the secret meetings with their lovers, and getting a rush from it. They are invested in keeping up the charade. To keep you off-kilter, they start accusing you of cheating. The goal is to keep you so busy defending yourself and being emotionally distraught that you don’t have enough time to pay attention to the gaslighter’s own behavior. By accusing you, the gaslighter has bought themselves time. The gaslighter can go as far as claiming they saw you out with someone — when in fact you were at home waiting for the gaslighter to show up late from work again. The gaslighter has you in a bind — you can’t prove that something never happened. But you try and try to prove to them that you did nothing wrong — but whatever evidence you produce is not good enough for the gaslighter. You become more concerned about being falsely accused than paying attention to the gaslighter’s own behavior.

The gaslighter may even present “evidence” to others of being manipulated by the victim. This evidence may be completely fabricated by the gaslighter, or the gaslighter takes facts and manipulates them, or “forgets” to share them. For example, the gaslighter tells your friends they are sure you are cheating because you “claimed” you were working late a few nights this week. You actually were working late a few nights this week — to earn extra money in overtime. But the gaslighter conveniently leaves this fact out when badmouthing you to your friends. When you remind the gaslighter that you told them you were working late, they deny you ever told them this — and then they bring up another reason why they are “convinced” you are cheating.

Let’s say the gaslighter in your life is addicted to heroin. You suspect they have stolen money from you to feed their addiction. Before even getting a chance to confront them, the gaslighter calmly tells you that they are concerned you are an alcoholic. You immediately go into defense mode — no one has ever accused you of this before, and it is a shock. It throws you into a tailspin. The gaslighter brings up times where they knew you were drunk — but you don’t recall any of these times. The gaslighter may even accuse you of blacking out, and claims that’s why you can’t remember. You start questioning your sanity — and this is exactly the exact goal of the gaslighter. Meanwhile, the gaslighter keeps using and stealing.


Besides direct contact with the victim and their family and friends, the gaslighter also uses social media as a way to accuse and deflect from their own behavior. The gaslighter knows that once something is posted on social media, the information travels quickly. The gaslighter is also in a position of power on social media by never answering any questions about the truth of their claims, thus perpetuating the gaslighter's lie.

Projecting

The gaslighter may accuse you of being manipulative because they are projecting — one of the more commonly used defense mechanisms. I can’t own up to my behavior, so I’m going to put it on you. While a pre-emptive strike is a gaslighter’s conscious choice to manipulate you for their gain, projection can be done on a conscious or unconscious level. While some gaslighters are very aware that they are putting their behavior on someone else to get what they want, some gaslighters who are projecting are not even aware that they are doing it. In either case, projection is an unhealthy behavior and should not be tolerated.

Some gaslighters unconsciously project out of guilt or shame. In the case of narcissistic personality disorder, narcissists feel they are totally okay, and think that everyone else has a problem. This is called ego-syntonic behavior. It is very difficult to get a narcissistic gaslighter to get help through counseling — because they think you have the problem, not them. Projecting behavior can get to the point where a gaslighter delusionally believes that they are being persecuted by the victim — when in fact the opposite is true.

Whatever the origin of the gaslighter’s accusatory behavior, they are still 100 percent responsible for it. Treat all cases of accusations towards you as what they are — accusations, not fact. There is no need to spend your extra energy trying to defend yourself – because it will never be good enough. Instead, take a hard look at whether the behavior the gaslighter accuses you of is actually something they are doing. Don’t let smoke and mirrors get in the way of uncovering the gaslighter’s behavior for what it is — manipulation of you and others by way of accusation and distraction.

In addition to Gaslighting: Know It and Identify It to Protect Yourself, for more information see Gaslighters: Are They Aware of What They Do?

Copyright 2017 Sarkis Media http://www.stephaniesarkis.com
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Re: Act & Punishment: The Pussy Riot Trials

Postby admin » Sun Aug 12, 2018 4:19 am

It Was God’s Will
by Dmitry Enteo
August 28, 2014
vk.com

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We invite everyone to a unique lecture and roundtable discussion on the relationship of God and the President of the Russian Federation on Sunday, September 7, [2014], at 5 p.m.

You will find out whether our President Vladimir Putin will become a god by grace, i..e, whether he will have all the same as the Creator of the Universe except for communion in His incomprehensible essence? Will Vladimir Putin’s mind take endless pleasure in the perfect knowledge granted him by God? Will he think the great thoughts of the Mind who created the Universe? Will his feelings be filled with infinite joy in God-seeing, and his love increase infinitely over the power of the Holy Spirit? Will Vladimir Vladimirovich’s will be united with God’s will and achieve firmness in goodness? Will Russia’s national leader endlessly come to know infinitely perfect God, penetrating into the depths of the Godhead? Is Vladimir Putin a god by nature or can he become one only by grace? Can we worship Vladimir Vladimirovich as a god on earth? What is the secret of the personal relationship between Vladimir Putin and the Transcendent Creator of worlds? Does Vladimir Putin teach us truly about God? You will learn the answers to these and many other questions by attending our lecture, which will be led by Dmitry Enteo, founder of the God’s Will grassroots movement and an expert in the field of metaphysical Putinism.
After the conversation there will be a roundtable discussion on the topic of Vladimir Putin’s role in strengthening the Russian Federation’s spiritual bonds in which everyone will be able to voice their opinions. After the event, everyone can take a picture with the lecturer and get souvenirs.

Free entry for the first 300 people. Photography and videotaping permitted.

Venue: International Fund for Slavic Literature and Culture, Chernigov Lane, 9/13, Building 2, Second floor, Moscow; Tretyakovskaya subway station

Everyone who is interested is welcome! Tel.: +7 (985) 174 6937

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Re: Act & Punishment: The Pussy Riot Trials

Postby admin » Sun Aug 12, 2018 4:19 am

Russian Orthodox Activists Who Vandalized Manezh Face Criminal Charges
by Anna Dolgov
The Moscow Times
September 15, 2015

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Investigators have opened a criminal case against a group of radical Orthodox activists who attacked Moscow’s Manezh exhibition center last month.

The suspected attackers from the ultraconservative group “God’s Will” could face criminal prosecution for the “destruction or damage of cultural property,” Interior Ministry spokesman Andrei Galiakberov was cited as saying Monday by state-run RIA Novosti news agency. The charge carries punishments ranging from a large fine to three years in prison.

The leader of “God’s Will,” Dmitry “Enteo” Tsorionov, said on his VKontakte social network page Monday that his group is now under criminal investigation.

Two of the attackers had previously been sentenced to 1,000 ruble ($14) fines on a “petty hooliganism” charge in connection with the raid, and other members of the group were to go to trial on the same charge.

Tsorionov said at the time that the verdict was too harsh and that the group planned to appeal, accusing the organizers of the exhibition of committing a crime by insulting religious feelings and inciting hatred, Interfax reported earlier.

The leader said Monday on his VKontakte page that the appeal had been turned down.

During the attack on the Manezh exhibition center on Aug. 14, Orthodox activists damaged four works by the highly acclaimed late sculptor Vadim Sidur and a work by the artist Megasoma Mars titled “Beheading of St. John the Baptist,” according to a Manezh spokeswoman.

The Interior Ministry spokesman on Monday cited “independent experts” as estimating the total damage of the vandalism attack at around 196,000 rubles ($2,895), RIA Novosti reported.

Earlier, art experts from the state-run Grabar Research and Restoration Center estimated the cost of restoring the damaged artworks at more than 1 million rubles, according to Manezh spokeswoman Yelena Karneyeva, state-run TASS news agency reported.

The Manezh will seek compensation for the full amount of damages based on the Grabar center estimate, Karneyeva told the Interfax news agency Monday.

Lecture announcement translated by The Russian Reader. The featured image was part of the original announcement on VKontakte. Thanks to Comrade NT for the heads-up. The Russian Reader previously reported on Enteo’s September 2014 lecture on Putin’s possible divinity in a post entitled “This Is Your Brain on Russia.”
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Re: Act & Punishment: The Pussy Riot Trials

Postby admin » Sun Aug 12, 2018 4:33 am

“Do Some Russians Think Vladimir Putin Is God?”
by Marc Bennet
Vocativ
September 8, 2014

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Here is a tiny illustration of how reality really is up for grabs in the Kremlin’s increasingly hot “cold civil war” against Russian society and, now, the rest of the world:

As I stand in the courtyard of a Moscow arts and craft center, a dark-haired, 20-something woman turns to me and asks: “Is this the venue for the ‘Is Vladimir Putin God?’ lecture?”

She smiles nervously, seemingly worried that I’ll think she’s crazy.

She’s not. The title of the lecture is actually “Will Putin Become God by Divine Grace?” but I decide not to correct her. Instead, I nod and show her the way to one of the oddest events in the Russian capital this year.

The lecture took place on Sunday and was first advertised by well-known radical Russian Orthodox activist Dmitry Enteo on VK, the Russian version of Facebook. In the post, Enteo promised to reveal the answers to the following questions:

“Is it possible to bow down to Vladimir Putin as God on earth?

“Will Vladimir Putin’s will fuse with the will of God?”

“Will Vladimir Putin receive endless pleasure through the completeness of the knowledge gifted to him by God?”

Not surprisingly, the lecture stirred up controversy online, as some Internet users accused Enteo of blasphemy, while others suggested he’d lost his mind.

“Let’s get this straight, Dmitry,” one VK user wrote. “Do you believe Putin will sit at the right-hand side of God’s throne when he dies?”

“Possibly,” replied Enteo.

The lecture kicks off with a hip-hop track by an African rap duo now based in Russia. The title: “I Go Hard Like Vladimir Putin.” When the song ends, Enteo fiddles with his laptop until Putin’s face appears on the screen behind him.

The Orthodox activist then addresses the audience of roughly 80 or so Muscovites, an apparent mixture of curious hipsters and true believers. (There’s also a middle-aged man in a suit that a fellow journalist immediately suspects of being an agent of the FSB, Russia’s principal security agency.)

“I’ll keep it brief, in the style of the subject of today’s lecture,” Enteo says.

At times his voice is barely audible, but when he quotes Putin, he makes sure to speak louder.

The hipsters behind me erupt in ironic applause. Enteo presses a button on his laptop, and the photo of Putin is replaced by swirling psychedelic images and low-volume break-beats. He proceeds to read a poem by Vladislav Surkov, the mysterious Kremlin ideologue. The overall effect is an atmosphere reminiscent of a secret cult meeting held at a nightclub.

Enteo then takes us through the history of Putin’s apparent transformation from hard-nosed KGB officer to Orthodox Christian believer. “Putin realized that his goal in life was God, and the Almighty entered into the body of Vladimir Putin,” Enteo says. “Then Vladimir Putin began to do good deeds, like break up opposition meetings.”

At one point, the activist curiously declares: “We disappoint Vladimir Putin. While he tearfully prays for us at night, we smoke hashish.”

The lecture lasts about an hour, before Enteo builds on a final riff in which he determines that, yes, Putin will transform into a godlike being, and like all good Orthodox believers, eventually grow a beard.

After a brief Q&A, the crowd files out. “That was creepy,” says one attendee.

Others seem puzzled by the whole affair.


“It’s a response, in many ways an ironic one, to Putin’s de facto domination of everything from the economy to the media,” says Anna Arutunyan, author of The Putin Mystique, who attended the lecture.

“Most of it, of course, is just Enteo publicizing himself, but some of it is also taking what we see around us to its grotesque logical conclusion.”

Russians have a long history of venerating their leaders, from the reverence of the czars to the terrifying cult of personality that developed around Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin. While Enteo didn’t directly say that Putin was God, he felt comfortable posing the question, which shows just how powerful the Russian president has become.

Not everyone, of course, sees the hand of God in Putin’s politics. In Ukraine, where a Kremlin-backed separatist movement is slowly tearing the ex-Soviet state apart, the country’s spiritual leader, Patriarch Filaret, recently suggested the Russian leader was possessed by the devil.

“Like Judas, Satan has entered into him,” Filaret declared, as he accused Putin of turning the two Slavic countries against each other. “Like the first brother-killer, Cain, he has fallen under a demonic influence.”

Regardless of which side you take in the “Putin: God or Satan?” debate, it’s a remarkable development in the life of this former, low-ranking KGB operative. From serving the officially atheist Soviet state in Cold War-era East Germany to being compared to God and the devil, it’s been a long, strange road for Vladimir Putin. And it’s not over yet.
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Re: Act & Punishment: The Pussy Riot Trials

Postby admin » Sun Aug 12, 2018 4:56 am

Meet the Nihilist-Anarchist Network Bringing Chaos to a Town Near You
The FAI is a nihilist-anarchist organization whose members aren't out to protect anybody from the ruthless grip of inequality. They are not Hugo Chavez or Vladimir Lenin—they don’t care that your plight isn’t represented if you're just standing by with...
by Jake Hanrahan
Feb 13 2013, 8:50am

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On May 7th, 2012, two masked gunmen crept up on the CEO of nuclear engineering firm Ansaldo Nucleare outside his home in Italy. As their target—56-year-old Roberto Adinolfi—emerged from his house, the gunmen fired three shots at him. One shattered Adinolfi’s right kneecap. The attackers weren't petty extortionists or Mafia guns for hire, as was initially assumed, but members of what is considered to be a highly organized and shadowy left-wing terrorist organisation named Federazione Anarchica Informale—shortened to the FAI, or the Informal Anarchist Federation in English.

After the FAI had claimed the attack on Adinolfi, the mainstream press effectively attributed it to a bunch of trigger-happy Italian anarchists who were trying to imitate the Red Brigades—the Leninist-Marxist Brigate Rosse whose paramilitaries caused havoc in Italy throughout the 70s and 80s. In reality, the FAI actually holds no Marxist beliefs at all and have stated to me via an anonymous source that they have no affiliation with the Red Brigades whatsoever.

My source has taken many precautions and will only communicate with me via methods that are virtually untraceable, secretly handing me reams of FAI literature to sift through for research. The group's members are people who international security agents would very much like to sit down and talk to. Clearly they're anxious about police infiltration and take every precaution they can to protect the identities of their "comrades."

As demonstrated by Adinolfi's kneecapping (carried out because of his company’s affiliation with Italian defense conglomerate Finmeccanica, currently being investigated on corruption charges), the FAI’s MO is to carry out violent resistance against what they call the “European Fortress”—an FAI term for the unjust and oppressive forces they feel are running the continent.

Instead of peacefully handing out leaflets, they mask up and employ the full force of "direct action," proven by their many attacks like the bombing of private banks in Rome, the torching of surveillance towers in Russia, and the destruction of rail lines in the UK. They’ve also tried to send letter bombs to MEPs, which were either intercepted or didn’t explode (something the FAI says was an intentional scare tactic).

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Forensics officers studying the Adinolfi crime scene.

As an informal organization without leaders, hierarchies, or figureheads, it can sometimes be hard to distinguish exactly what it is the FAI is fighting against. But through the hundreds of pages of FAI manifestos, memorandums, communiqués, and a meeting transcript I’ve read through, it seems obvious that their main objective is to destroy any form of “state” or leadership throughout Europe.

They claim to fight alongside the impoverished who are downtrodden in their own lands by unfair foreign-trade deals, for a "true personal freedom where the individual can decide their own fate without having to be governed by anyone." They state that the “total destruction of market and hierarchy” would help accomplish this. It could, of course, also cause widespread famine and allow bloodthirsty, psychopathic criminals to run amok—we've all seen the Batman fillms—but the sentiment seems to only deal directly with the idea of the revolution itself, and not its aftermath.

According to them, the FAI isn't out to make friends or help fix society. Instead, they claim to "fight continuously to remove the status quo and to implement a completely new and free society." The FAI feels that the only way for such ideals to exist is to have a world with no government and no authority of any kind. However, no solidarity is shown for those already being oppressed if they’re not prepared for violent combat against their enemies, because this is apparently just adding to the oppression the FAI aim to destroy.

In essence, the FAI is a nihilist-anarchist organization. The members aren't out to represent you or to protect anybody from the ruthless grip of inequality. They are not Hugo Chavez or Vladimir Lenin—they don’t care if your plight isn’t represented if you're just standing by with your hands in your pockets. But, if you're fighting like they are—if you're reaching into those pockets of yours and pulling out a letter bomb or a pistol, for example—then they’re most definitely with you. Especially if you're taking aim at the "European Fortress."

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The aftermath of the FAI's Chile bank bomb.

The FAI's history runs back to the 90s and they're responsible for thousands of violent attacks, from blowing up banks in Chile to burning out cars belonging to Tory MPs and the Lord Mayor of Bristol. After sifting through the materials handed to me by the FAI, I still have no idea why they targeted the Lord Mayor of Bristol. And neither, judging by his quotes in this local news report, does he, but it seems his Toyota Prius and his wife's Ford Fiesta were deemed to be part of the European Fortress and so they had to die in the nihilists' fire.

Although officially founded as a movement in 2003, the FAI’s first recognized attack was in 1999, when they sent explosive devices to the Greek embassy, to an office of tourism in Madrid, and to a branch of Citibank in Barcelona. They sent the explosives in the mail to show solidarity with a man named Nikos Maziotis, now infamous for his statement to the Athens Criminal Court, after he was arrested for putting a bomb in the Ministry of Industry and Development in Greece on December 12th, 1997.

After the 1999 mail bombs, FAI cells sent a torrent of incendiary explosive devices to organizations and journalists such as La Razón newspaper in Madrid, the church of Sant'Ambrogio, the court of Valencia, the Madrid Cathedral, and the Carabinieri (the national military police of Italy) in Genoa, which detonated and wounded one of the policemen. They've also sent out “parcels of dog shit” to two of their targets.

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These incendiary attacks were a further fight against prisons, more specifically the FIES isolation units. These units go mostly unreported in the media, which is probably because they're brutal isolation blocks within Spanish prisons where unruly inmates are sent for months and years on end. They have come to be the prison authority’s favored holding pen for anarchists and social prisoners, many of whom have reported extreme acts of daily, brutal torture at the hands of their guards.

The grim isolation blocks act as jails within jails, operating under the radar of the EU’s Human Rights Charter that Spain is supposed to adhere to. One anarchist by the name of Gabriel Pombo Da Silva (imprisoned for having a shootout with border officials in Germany) managed to escape from a FIES unit in February 2004, before writing a letter detailing his suffering there. Just four months later, his anarchist comrade Jose Antonio Cano killed himself at one of the isolation blocks in Barcelona after being imprisoned and reportedly tortured there for 12 years.

The attacks against FIES units following the 1999 parcel bombs are just a handful of the FAI’s successful missions. Due to the group's decentralized nature and total lack of leadership or hierarchy, the FAI are collecting a large number of associated cells that extend their reach across the planet. Acts carried out by the FAI's international comrades include the burning down of a school in Indonesia (because "school is a prison"), the (unplanned) shooting of two police officers in Greece, and the arson of a transmitter site near Bath in the UK just last month. The latter left 80,000 homes without TV and radio and caused hundreds of thousands of pounds' worth of damage.

"The entertainment industry is an important tool to manipulate human behavior," read the statement the culprits posted online to claim responsibility for the torching at Bath. "Without a steady supply of distractions it would be much harder to persuade people that their lives are satisfactory."

They dedicated the attack to a fellow anarchist named Xosé Tarrío González, who died in a FIES isolation unit in Coruna in 2005.

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CCF members Gerasimos Tsakalos and Panagiotis Argirou.

The benefits of having this sprawling, extended family of anarchist cells is that prospective members don’t need to meet or form a bond with anyone in the FAI to join the struggle. Because of that exact makeup, the FAI claim to have never been successfully infiltrated by undercover police agents.

Most notable of the FAI associates is the Greece-based Conspiracy of Cells of Fire (CCF), who effectively joined forces with the FAI in 2011 after a trial involving some of their members. As the FAI had done before them, the CCF launched their first wave of attacks on January 21st, 2008 to show unity with imprisoned anarchists. Members of the CCF detonated gas-canister bombs across the cities of Athens and Thessaloniki. Luxury-car dealerships had their expensive showrooms blown to bits and banks were completely gutted.

The CCF decided not to duck for cover after this first wave of destruction, instead proceeding to detonate bombs outside of police stations in the midst of the Greek riots, set fire to the top floors of the Rabobank building in Utrecht, bomb the Athens law court, bomb the homes of anti-immigration politicans and blow up the HQ of neo-Nazi party Golden Dawn. They even sent explosives in the post to Angela Merkel, Silvio Berlusconi and other European heads of state, but they were intercepted, a lapse in execution you can probably forgive the CCF; they've been pretty busy.

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The fire at the Rabobank building in Utrecht.

In one of the documents I've read, the CCF speak the same message as the FAI from the very beginning: "The guerrilla has finally escaped the pages of books dealing with decades past and taken to the streets with ferocity," they say. "Because the urban guerrilla doesn’t offer utopian freedom. She allows access to immediate freedom."

After the collaboration, the FAI/CCF became stronger, more than tripling in size and becoming increasingly recognised for their violent resistance across Europe and much of the world. But despite the size of the groups and the numerous attacks being launched in countries internationally, the FAI still aren't recognized by America. The US has a Foreign Terrorist Organizations (FTO) designation system. In its own words, “FTO designations play a critical role in our fight against terrorism and are an effective means of curtailing support for terrorist activities.”

The fact that the FAI aren't yet on the list might be due to the fact that—unlike other terrorist organizations on the FTO system—they've yet to murder any civilians or innocent bystanders. Mail handlers having their hands burned by explosives and office workers being cut by flying glass in the crossfire of bomb attacks are of course deeply unsettling events, but evidence suggests that no civilian has ever actually been killed as a direct result of an FAI cell's attack.

Not that all FAI members are averse to the possibility of human “collateral damage.” In an FAI meeting transcript from 2006, a conversation is had between members about the accidental wounding of civilians.

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DO NOT SAY THAT WE ARE FEW [Italian FAI]
If the acts are the bullets that tear the flesh out of the capitalist world, then the theoretical foundations, thoughts and feelings are the rabid-firing weapons. Acts not accompanied by the meanings that inspired them are inconsistent moments devoid of the possibility of diffusion and appropriation, while thoughts and ideas not applied in practice result in dull discussions inside cafes and degenerate into another ideological sham.
On these foundations, rebellious groups and individuals communicated their attacks forming the Informal Anarchist Federation/International Revolutionary Front (FAI/IRF). The anti-authoritarian in-formalistic international network of insurgent groups and autonomous individualities that applies the direct action and sabotage against the State and the Capital but also the opposition of consciousness to every relation of Ppower, which is inculcated in all the way to the bottom of the social pyramid and translated into petit-bourgeois competition and possessive envy. The FAI connects the attacks and destructions in Italy, UK, Russia, Belgium, Finland, Holland, Chile, Mexico, Argentina, Peru, Bolivia, Indonesia and Greece, orchestrating the polyphony of nighttime explosions in view of the JOINT revolutionary aspirations and the JOINT struggle for freedom, thus creating an ocean of dialectics and communication in the ranks of the anarchists of the action.
LONG LIVE THE FAI/IRF, LONG LIVE ANARCHY!


“Why on earth do they [nonviolent anarchists] care about the safety of a postman or a secretary every time a parcel bomb is sent?” says somebody named as Archimede Pitagorico. “We need to show that we're serious, that we don’t hide behind tortuous reasoning and that we don’t have any problem to attack even at risk of life!”

Another member, named Paperina, says: “What a fucking rhetoric!”

“Let me finish,” says Pitagorico. “The problem is that we have too many scruples and that we never go further. We need to be more audacious with explosives and we don’t have to think that we can't hurt a secretary if the target is her boss.”

“It’s a matter of means,” says another member named Quo. “We have to be more selective: guns instead of explosives.”

The meeting goes on to talk about how FAI members have been extremely careful not to harm civilians, and that they’ve even “saved the guilty” by being cautious of the innocent.

With any group as large and geographically dispersed as the FAI, conflicting interests and contradictions are going to crop up every so often. The media have often focused on these inconsistencies more than they have the bigger parts of the puzzle—the mass bombings and gunshots at dawn, not to mention what the evidence points to: there are a growing number of people out there who feel oppressed to the point of taking up arms.

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It might be impossible to ever fully understand or report on the FAI with complete and total accuracy, due to the group's nature. They even say themselves that, “Any piece of writing, analysis, or critique that comes out of the FAI will never be a definitive one. Our informal federation is in constant evolution.”

The FAI is essentially the movement that many of these intermingling leftist-insurrectional anarchist cells operate under—they are to CCF, IRF, and the Earth Liberation Front what the PLO was to Al Fatah, PFLP, and PDFLP in the 70s. A quote from FAI members that neatly wraps up the message, struggle, and formation of the FAI: “We are one single thing without knowing one another. In our diversities, we are the hand that will break the chains.”

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A cross being chopped down in Russia.



Although you might not have heard about it yet, the FAI has been busy rattling said chains already this year, at least four successful attacks taking place in January alone. These include the firebombing of a bank in Russia, arson attacks on the home of a senior political figure in Indonesia, and the felling of some gigantic wooden religious crosses in Moscow.

In turn, the Italian authorities have stepped up their battle against the FAI, launching an antianarchist effort named Operation Ardire. Ardire charges the Italian police with raiding the houses of suspected anarchists, pulling them out of their beds and throwing them into jail. Bloggers simply showing their approval of an FAI attack have been targeted and locked up, according to the FAI, with some prisoners refused basic rights such as phone calls and visitors.

So don’t be fooled by the mainstream radio silence—the FAI is not some part-time group of activist students getting rowdy on the weekend, but an underground network of committed, established and violent anarchists. If you look at the UK government's current quest to slash benefits while it allows globe-straddling businesses to swerve millions of pounds' worth of corporate taxes, you can see why young people both in the UK and abroad are joining forces with the FAI to take action.
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Re: Act & Punishment: The Pussy Riot Trials

Postby admin » Sun Aug 12, 2018 5:42 am

Pro-Church Activists 'Attack' Erotic Art Museum, Director Says
by The Moscow Times
Aug. 30 2012 - 00:08

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Two pro-church activists, [Dmitry Enteo] right and center, who barged into the Museum of Erotic Art late Tuesday, one of them holding what appears to be a Bible.



The director of Moscow's Museum of Erotic Art said "Orthodox militants" [Dmitry Enteo] stormed the museum late Tuesday, causing the receptionist to flee out of fear for her life.

Alexander Donskoi, who Interfax identified as the director of the museum, said in a message on his Facebook page that the activists "attacked" the museum holding a brick. Donskoi did not specify what, if anything, the activists did or said while inside the museum.

A photo of the activists posted on Facebook by Donskoi shows two men who appeared in a widely circulated YouTube video in which pro-church activists rebuke a diner at a Mu-mu cafe for wearing a T-shirt expressing support for female punk group Pussy Riot.


Security camera footage of the incident also posted on Facebook by Donskoi shows what appears to be a camera crew accompanying the activists. On Monday, pro-church activists with a crew from state-controlled NTV disrupted a theater event about Pussy Riot at Teater.doc.

Donskoi called the incident at his museum extremism and linked it to his support for Pussy Riot, three of whose members were sentenced to two years in prison earlier this month for performing a song deriding President Vladimir Putin at Christ the Savior Cathedral.

"Today Orthodox militants punish us for supporting Pussy Riot, threatening our lives and tearing clothes off simple passersby, and tomorrow they'll go raid churches of other confessions and stab atheists. It is pure extremism," Donskoi wrote on his Facebook page.


He also called on law enforcement authorities to stop the actions of the "loathsome ... movement of Orthodox militants."

Donskoi is a former mayor of the northern city of Arkhangelsk, according to Interfax. Earlier this year, he announced the creation of his Party of Love by holding a demonstration in support of Pussy Riot in which party activists swam in a fountain at the GUM shopping center next to Red Square, the news agency said.
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Re: Act & Punishment: The Pussy Riot Trials

Postby admin » Sun Aug 12, 2018 5:45 am

The most “orthodox” project from Dmitry Enteo
by Imperor: All about the Monarchy
6/24/14

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“Ban Leo Natanovich Sharansky” informs: Dmitriy “Enteo” is Tsorionov looking for sponsors for his new business project to create a religious media. “The infusion of at least 20,000 visitors a day,” – said the activist. However, what he says, you can see it for yourself at his screens.

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The most “orthodox” project from Dmitry Enteo News

Our resource has not yet written about the dog Orthodox adventures Dmitry “Enteo” Tsorionova, many of which resemble a madhouse of mischief. An activist who calls himself Orthodox, according to his own conviction, for a long time engaged Buddhism and spirituality and … sight. Sight that the greatest glory and riches of this world can be obtained by militant and arrogant “Encyclopedias” around to protect feelings of Orthodox believers.

Although if you look, Enteo and others with him cannot call themselves Orthodox. They do not love the neighbor, that is, break the commandment that Jesus gave us.

The goal of Christianity – not social service and charity, much less a crusade against the infidels, and the salvation and eternal life. The predominant activity Enteo crusade, taking the form of bullying in the absence of other instruments. By its actions it contributes to the negative perception of the Church. And it’s not in these perceptions. Speaking of the Christian language, these activists entice people to commit a sin in their thoughts, and thus take responsibility for this sin, despite the fact that the Christian must avoid sin.

Ancient preachers and missionaries carried the light of Christ to people through love, sincerity and care. Now there are almost disapeared, that would be their example shows what it means to true Christianity and true doctrine of salvation and the meaning of life. PR and monetization affect the ministers of the Church, outside the performance of rites and foreign charity has become a manifestation of faith among parishioners. Companion rescue instruments replaced salvation itself at best. At worst, the aim is material gain, and the Christian attributes and behavior – the means to achieve it.

If Enteo we see the defeat of his soul outside, material aimed at the destruction. In this sense, it is much closer LIH than the Russian Orthodox Church.
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Re: Act & Punishment: The Pussy Riot Trials

Postby admin » Sun Aug 12, 2018 6:09 am

The Devil's Right Hand
by Kim Kelly
Oct 17 2016, 9:55am

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Religious fanatics in Russia want to 
strong-arm metal bands into silence.

This story appeared in the October Music issue of VICE magazine, a collaboration with THUMP and NOISEY.

In front of the Moscow Art Theater, a severed pig's head sat in silent protest, the words "To Tabakov" scrawled in black ink across its clammy forehead. Around the shrine, on April 1, 2015, Dmitry Enteo and the members of God's Will, his Russian Orthodox activist group, shouted anti-blasphemy slogans and theatrically crossed themselves. It's unclear whether the target of their ire, artistic director Oleg Tabakov, was present that day, but nonetheless, the group certainly achieved its goal of expressing disgust at the man's decision to stage Oscar Wilde's play An Ideal Husband. As the spokesperson for God's Will, Enteo—a slight man with a high forehead, a perennial self-satisfied smirk, and large, expressive eyes ripped straight out of a Pushkin verse—is no stranger to fomenting public chaos.

The Orthodox religious views he and the others share have led them to denounce any art that smacks of Satanism, homosexuality, or cultural deviance. His actions are typically showy and over-the-top; in addition to throwing pig heads and interrupting theater performances, some of his more colorful transgressions include tossing eggs at members of Marilyn Manson's band before a 2014 performance in Moscow, allegedly vandalizing an art show for showing "pornographic" images of Jesus Christ, staging a "missionary flashmob" in the capital's Darwin museum, and reportedly assaulting LGBTQ activists and Pussy Riot supporters.

Born Dmitry Tsorionov, Enteo participates in a burgeoning new wave of activism headed by young Orthodox religious fanatics: With a moral worldview of the 19th century, they attempt to spread their message using the technology of the 21st century. Their movement first gained notoriety in 2012, when Russian feminist punk collective Pussy Riot ignited a media firestorm after police arrested three of its members for performing the song "Punk Prayer" on the steps of Moscow's Cathedral of Christ the Savior. In 2013, following Pussy Riot's protest action, Orthodox activists pressured lawmakers to set an example and strengthen the official penalty for sacrilege. As a result, legislators amended the Russian criminal code to add Article 148, which classifies "public actions, expressing clear disrespect for society and committed in order to insult the religious feelings of believers," as a federal crime; in other words, it outlaws blasphemy.

Today, Article 148 proved useful to Orthodox activists like Enteo, who is in large part responsible for shifting the hard right's focus away from operas and art shows to more populist art forms, like the perceived blasphemers in Western heavy-metal and hard-rock bands. With the law on their side, these young religious fanatics have made a habit of intimidating promoters, showing up to protest concerts, phoning in bomb threats, and threatening to call the Federal Migration Service to tamper with musicians' visas, all in service of their goal to rid Russia of these "satanic" elements.

On August 26, 2016, Orthodox activists sent a statement to the Russian police urging them to permanently ban American death-metal icons Incantation, Austrian black/death metallers Belphegor, and American dark-folk act King Dude, insisting that the bands promote Satanism and blasphemy. While Incantation seemed to have little trouble at its Russia dates, protesters appeared outside its Moscow show, and band members complained of being prohibited from saying their "blasphemous" song titles onstage, a provision that King Dude also encountered on a more recent run. "I am clearly not a Satanist," says King Dude's TJ Cowgill. But "I am a Luciferian, as I've said for many years now. I am in no way anti-Christian, and in that same regard, I am definitely not anti-Satanist."

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Enteo denied our request for an interview, but that's not to say he doesn't relish attention. "Thank God!" he tweeted after an anonymous bomb threat canceled a Marilyn Manson concert in 2014. After another Manson show, in Novosibirsk, Russia's third-largest city, was also canceled, Enteo told NBC News, "We cannot allow for something like that [a Manson performance] to happen again." Twitter appears to be Enteo's favorite social medium; in his bio, he aligns himself with the "God's Will movement, orthodox christian, right-wing, conservative, pro-life, pro-family, pro-gun, creationism, anti-communism, fusionism" and broadcasts his views on religion and politics, his admiration for failed presidential candidate Ted Cruz, and his own exploits to more than 50,000 followers. With his social-media acumen, millennial flair for spectacle, and almost pathological craving for attention, he's like an ultra pious Russian equivalent of Milo Yiannopoulos.

In 2014, Enteo also targeted American death-metal legends Cannibal Corpse, which had eight shows booked across Russia for an October tour. Enteo told Ria.ru that "we send mass requests to the prosecutor, the description of what is happening at the concerts of the group, the texts of their songs, which describe in detail the rape and murder of children." He went on to note, "At first, we will try to resolve this issue with the help of law enforcement agencies. If it does not work, [there] may be rallies, prayer meetings—mass protest in different forms."

Ultimately, three shows were canceled. Cannibal Corpse explained its understanding of the circumstances in a statement, writing, "In Ufa the power was turned off shortly before the show (we were told because the venue was late on rent), and in Moscow and St. Petersburg we were told that we did not have the correct visas and that if we attempted to perform the concert would be stopped by police and we would be detained and deported (prior to the tour we had been told that we did have the correct visas and that all of our paperwork was in order). Our show in Nizhny Novgorod also had problems. In that city we performed half of our set before being stopped by police. We were told the police needed to search the venue for drugs and that the show had to be terminated."

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These Cannibal Corpse cancelations came on the heels of a similar incident concerning Polish death metallers Behemoth. Religious protesters in Moscow sent the city mayor, Sergey Sobyanin, a letter condemning the group's concert program, writing that it "insulted the feelings of believers," and officials detained and then expelled the band from the country. On May 21, once Behemoth arrived at a club in Yekaterinburg, the police took the band members to the migration office, where they learned they did not have the proper visa for a live performance. Ultimately, Behemoth was fined 2,000 rubles (about $30) and deported after playing only four of 13 scheduled concerts in the country.

More recently, another extremist mouthpiece, Anatoly Artyukh, has jumped into the fray, using a more confrontational and even violent approach. Both he and Erteo are notoriously attention-hungry and have made very public appearances to spread their rhetoric and gloat about their successes in repressing Western metal bands. Our requests for interviews with Artyukh were not returned, but we know that the 55-year-old musician and former businessman heads up the St. Petersburg branch of Narodny Sobor (the "people's council"), a nationalist group closely allied with the Russian Orthodox Church, and has made his bones by stirring up hate against the LGBTQ community; he's lobbied to classify homosexuality and transgenderism as psychological disorders, distributed anti-gay literature to schoolchildren, and even created a ballet that condemns gays, abortion, and women without children.

Artyukh made headlines this past April when he spat in the face of an Austrian heavy-metal musician, Belphegor vocalist Helmuth Lehner, as the band arrived at the St. Petersburg airport to kick off its planned Russian tour. A video capturing the incident clearly shows Artyukh, a big man with a dark parka and hardened features, explaining his motivation—calling the band "perverts," "gays," and "Satanists" and promising "to do everything [he] can" to prevent "this freak show"—while citing Article 282 of the Russian criminal code, which prohibits "incitement to hatred or hostility, and humiliation of human dignity." After interrogating a hapless fan who'd been waiting at the gates to meet Belphegor, Artyukh strode up to the band members themselves and spat in Lehner's face; Lehner spat back and called for security. Artyukh continued to verbally harass him and his companions, including the American death-metal band Nile, and he threatened to have Belphegor's concert canceled. Artyukh and his henchmen closely followed the bands out of the airport, clearly begging for a fight; tensions came to a head after Artyukh struck Nile frontman Karl Sanders's arm.




Video of the incident, which was posted on YouTube, is uncomfortable to watch, and the result was even messier— Belphegor's St. Petersburg concert was canceled hours before stage time, and its Moscow concert devolved into farce, as the band was ordered to remove its backdrop and stage props, and Lehner was ordered not to sing on the track "Lucifer Incestus"; the sound engineer ended up muting the vocals for the rest of the show due to the band's lyrical content, and once the guys got offstage, they learned that their next two shows, in Ekaterinburg and Krasnodar, had been canceled too.

"Of course Belphegor will return to Russia," Lehner claims, though it remains unclear whether criminal charges will be brought against the band and succeed in barring it and similar acts from the country.

"The thing is," Lehner says, "I don't see Belphegor nor me as the victim. We did something right to piss those kinds of people off."

While it appears that Enteo, Artyukh, and their ilk primarily concern themselves with big-name artists—the better to draw attention to their cause—another recent incident shows how they've taken a passing interest in the local underground-metal scene. In April, Polish band Batuskha was forced to cancel two shows, stating in an email, "We had all the approvals and 'green light' from the Russian Police, immigration control and responsible officials. Unfortunately we received threats from extremists affiliated with the Russian Orthodox Church stating that they will beat up and even kill people attending both shows. Since it's beyond our control and we are not able to assure that the concerts will be 100% safe for both the audience and us we are forced to cancel both of them immediately."

Local promoters have also been targeted. An American metal band (that spoke under the condition of anonymity to ensure the safety of the Russian promoter who put on its Moscow and St. Petersburg dates) arrived to play its first show, only to find that the promoter had been asked to sign a document declaring that the band wouldn't be endorsing anything blasphemous. It was also rumored that Orthodox-affiliated plainclothes policemen—"out of place older guys in white button-up shirts"—were seen lurking around the band's Moscow gig, but fortunately, none of them ran into any further trouble. The band seemed unruffled by the experience, though, commenting, "[We've] played Russia a few times already, and, yes, the first time [we] went there I was very aware of bands having some trouble there. It didn't make [us] not want to go to Russia; in fact, [we] would say that it had the complete opposite effect."

Perhaps that's the best way to approach a group of shadowy extremists who operate under a Russified version of the Westboro Baptist Church model—taking their wailing and gnashing of teeth in stride, and refusing to back down. For all the activists' bluster and the foreign bands' headaches, it's homegrown Russian metalheads who ultimately suffer, and while these Orthodox extremists have yet to fully focus their hatred on local scenes as they have with Western bands, Andrei P. of Novosibirsk-based funeral-doom band Station Dysthymia told us that people are still nervous about the possibility.

"The really uneasy part [is] that whenever you play or plan to attend a gig," says Andrei, "you're now always worried that someone's gonna show up to shit on your parade."

"I am Russian, I love my people and my country," he continues, "and that's why I think we need to fight against shit like this, be it related to music or anything else. I am not against religious people, but I think that just as I have no business telling them how to live their life, they also have no business imposing their beliefs on other people."

Photos by Anthony Tafuro
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Re: Act & Punishment: The Pussy Riot Trials

Postby admin » Sun Aug 12, 2018 6:37 am

Topless against Putin: Femen activists protest in Italy ahead of Russia-Ukraine talks
by euronews (in English)
Published on Oct 16, 2014

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