#Mediazona
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In Plain Sight
Accused terrorist Shamsidin Fariduni, with bruising on his face, inside a Moscow courtroom. Photo: Yulia Morozova/Reuters via the New York Times
It seems that one of the consequences of this tragedy [i.e., the terrorist attack on the concert hall in suburban Moscow] has been the legalization, or legitimization, of torture. Torture existed before, but it was concealed and formally condemned. Now…
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#"States of Denial: Knowing About Atrocities and Suffering" (book)#Crocus City Hall#Dalerdzhon Mirzoyev#Gaza#Matt Carr#Mediazona#Muhammadsobir Faizov#Saidakrami Murodali Rachabalizoda#Sergei Babinets#Sergey Abashin#Shamsidin Fariduni#Stanley Cohen#terrorism#torture#torture in police custody
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BBC bestätigt die Identität von 21.700 russischen Soldaten, die in den 14 Monaten des Krieges in der Ukraine getötet wurden
Anhand offener Quellen ermittelte BBC Russia gemeinsam mit Mediazona, einem unabhängigen russischen Medienunternehmen, die Namen von 21 700 russischen Soldaten, die im Krieg in der Ukraine getötet wurden. Die Medien führen eine namentliche Zählung der Toten durch.
BBC bestätigt die Identität von 21.700 russischen Soldaten, die in den 14 Monaten des Krieges in der Ukraine getötet wurden
Davon…
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#Kyiv#Mediazona#Russia#Russia-Ukraine war#Russland#Russland Ukraine Krieg#Ukraine#Ukraine Nachrichten
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In November 2023, the Russian Supreme Court ruled to ban the “international LGBT movement” as an “extremist organization” — despite the fact that no such formal entity exists. Soon after the decision was passed, Russian security forces began conducting violent searches of private parties. In February alone, the authorities have raided parties, forcing attendees to lie face-down on the floor and asking them if they belong to the LGBTQ community, at least three times. In some cases, party guests were beaten. Journalists from the outlet Mediazona spoke to attendees of these events about what happened. Meduza summarizes their reporting in English.
On February 21, the Russian TV network REN TV aired a segment about how security officials had raided a cottage in the town of Koltushi near St. Petersburg. According to the newscaster, the agents “shut down a provocative party” after finding “several dozen young people who couldn’t immediately name their own gender.” The report also said that items with “symbols of the LGBT movement, which is banned in Russia,” were found on the premises. Footage included in the segment showed about 10 people lying on the floor with their hands behind their heads. It also showed police interrogating people arrested at the party, asking questions such as “Do you consider yourself part of the LGBT movement?” and “Are you a boy or a girl?”
One of the attendees who spoke to Mediazona said that there were 16 people at the party and that they had gathered to celebrate a friend’s birthday. According to the source, the police burst into the cottage early in the morning on February 18 and forced everyone to lie on the floor. The officers lifted attendees up “by the hair and by the neck” before interrogating them on camera, according to the source, and the attendees ultimately spent five hours lying on the floor.
They made disgusting jokes, calling us obscene words, idiots, that kind of thing, and saying they wished we would die. They walked around asking each person, “Are you a boy or a girl?” And if they weren’t sure about somebody’s sex, they would send them to an investigator, where they were forced to show their body parts. They asked one girl to lift her skirt and tighten her leggings. My friend had to show scars from [surgery]. The whole time they were asking questions like, “Oh, where’s your penis? Where did you put it?”
That same day, law enforcement officials also raided a party that was dedicated to “openness and sexuality” at a cultural center in the city of Tula. According to the Telegram channel Ostorozhno, Novosti, police made some of the attendees go outside, where they proceeded to beat them. A video published by the channel shows a man who is reportedly a plainclothes officer beating a person lying in the snow. “Who are you talking to like that, you piece of shit?” the attacker says.
Another video published by the channel shows security officials bursting into a building and shouting, “Everybody on the floor!” and “Come here, you son of a bitch!”
One attendee described the raid to Mediazona:
They beat them, including people lying on the ground, with fists to their face, and kicked them. They interrogated them, while filming what was happening. They stripped them naked and made them squat, do push-ups, and sing the city anthem of Tula. They threw them face-down in the dirt, tased them, and poured water on them. The officers forced everyone to state their full name and educational institution, if they were studying, on a recording. They searched everyone and took photos of everyone’s passports, and they were constantly shouting about ‘LGBT.’
The person also said the party was “small” and that it “wasn’t positioned as an LGBT gathering.”
According to the local news outlet Tula Press, several people who attended the event were charged with spreading “LGBT propaganda.”
Another party was shut down by the authorities on February 9, but the raid wasn’t reported publicly until February 20, when an article titled “Activity of large LGBT community curbed in Petrozavodsk” appeared on a local news site in Russia’s Republic of Karelia. The report says that a “female resident of Petrozavodsk is suspected of organizing a community united by affiliation with LGBT culture” and that only “known representatives of the LGBT community” were allowed into the party: “The shocking list includes both men and women. It includes both married and divorced people. It also includes mothers, including some with three children.”
Additionally, on February 4, police raided a club in Yekaterinburg that was hosting a BDSM party called Blue Velvet. Only guests who purchased tickets in advance were allowed to attend the event, and a password was required for entry. The authorities said the raid was carried out for the purpose of “stabilizing the operational situation” in the city.
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Dead soldiers per capita in Russia's regions after 1 year of war (as of 24th Feb 2023) - identified deaths, based on BBC/Mediazona data.
by @humsblog
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The Russians who came to say goodbye to Navalny chanted, in addition to “No to war!”, “Ukrainians are good people” and “Bring the soldiers home!”
Video: Chernykh and his corncrake / Telegram, “Mediazona”
@dmytrogordon_official
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I’m sorry for your friends in Russia. How are they now? Do you think it is possible to do something for the people who are dissidents and are at risks of being targeted by the governement?
Well, the general mood is dejected and angry. Some people are bringing flowers to the monuments to victims of Soviet-era political repressions or creating improvised memorials, which get promptly dismantled by the police. Some are just quietly grieving. Like I said, most people didn't even really like Navalny, but his death is proof that if even a popular public figure like him may be disposed of with no trouble (even if it was not assassination proper and his health actually failed him, it's still murder - he was kept in harsh conditions on purpose), then the great number of other political prisoners who aren't as well-known are at even more risk. (And right now, people in Russia are getting thrown in prison for basically anything - one man, I kid you not, was imprisoned because his daughter drew an anti-war drawing at school). Besides, the Russian opposition is already atomized as it is, with leftist politicians disconnected from ordinary people nearly as much as the current government, and most prominent activists having been arrested or forced to flee abroad. Navalny, for all his faults and those of his team, was one of the very few people still in Russia who could pass for some sort of leader. The only two other such people I can think of, Vladimir Kara-Murza and Ilya Yashin, are also in prison.
Regarding what can be done, OVD-Info is a human rights defense group that provides legal aid to anti-war protesters and other people persecuted for their political views. It is possible to support them through GlobalGiving. Also, in terms of spreading awareness, Mediazona is a good independent media reporting, among other things, on politically motivated court cases. Here's the link to the English version of their page.
#asks#artemideaddams#russian tag#it is very kind of you to ask; thank you#all pages linked in the post are in english btw
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Degenerate Art
The FSB has opened a criminal case on charges of “high treason” against artist and former Mediazona publisher Pyotr Verzilov. The details of the case are not yet known, but as part of their investigation, law enforcers raided the homes of a number of artists and activists across Russia. Many of those whom the law enforcers raided are not personally acquainted with Verzilov.
In the early hours of…
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#anti-war art#apartment exhibitions#Bulldozer Exhibition#Bumaga (news website)#Collective Actions#guerrilla art#high treason#Katrin Nenasheva#Lianozovo school#Mediazona#Party of the Dead#Pussy Riot#Pyotr Verzilov#Russian police state#underground Soviet art
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MOSCOW — This week, lawyers for jailed American basketball star Brittney Griner revealed she is currently on her way to a Russian penal colony to begin serving out her nine-year sentence on drug smuggling charges.
Which prison, exactly, is unknown. Neither is Griner's current location. Prisoner transfers often take several weeks, and only then are Russian authorities required to reveal a convict's whereabouts, Griner's legal team says.
Nearly half a million Russians are currently incarcerated— the highest number on the European continent, according to 2022 figures.
Yet those who have spent time in the system say Griner can expect an experience that is more aligned with the Soviet Union's past than most Americans' current ideas of criminal justice.
"If jail is possible to imagine, then a penal colony, you can only imagine reading dissidents' books," says Maria Alyokhina, who spent nearly two years in a colony following a protest performance in a Moscow church as a member of the renowned feminist punk collective Pussy Riot.
Alyokhina suggests reading Soviet writers like Alexander Solzhenitsyn, who indelibly captured the grim cruelty of the Soviet camps in his work The Gulag Archipelago.
There's also Alyokhina's own memoir Riot Days, which is also now a traveling live performance of her experiences in a prison colony in the Ural mountains.
"Of course it has a bit better conditions than [the] original gulag system from the 1950s," says Alyokhina, reached by NPR on tour in the United Kingdom. "But the sense is the same. It is a labor camp."
Alyokhina says while most Americans imagine prison cells with bars, Griner can expect to live in "the zone" — a set of barracks with 80 to 100 women sleeping to a room and few, if any, amenities.
"For 100 women, there are like three toilets and no hot water," says Alyokhina. Bathing is a once-a-week occurrence.
Most importantly, she says, in Russian prison colonies, all prisoners must perform forced labor.
"This is a really terrible institution which we received from [the] Soviet Union and it's totally inhuman. The cynical thing is, the work the state provides to the prisoners is sewing uniforms for Russian police and the Russian army," she says.
"This is a legal slavery system. There's nothing about correction or improvement of people's behavior," she adds.
Alyokhina's advice for Griner and her supporters is to keep the pressure on
Speaking at the White House on Wednesday, President Biden reaffirmed his desire to reengage the Kremlin in discussions over a potential prisoner exchange.
"My intention is to get her home, and we've had a number of discussions so far, and I'm hopeful that now that our election is over, there's a willingness to negotiate more specifically with us," said Biden. "I am determined to get her home and to get her home safely."
In the meantime, the president has tasked his administration to "prevail on her Russian captors to improve her treatment and the conditions she may be forced to endure in a penal colony," according to administration officials.
But Alyokhina suggests Griner is unlikely to receive special treatment once in the colony.
"It doesn't matter the citizenship of the prisoner," she says.
Asked what advice she would give to Griner, Alyokhina says, "It's important to not forget yourself and not lose your freedom. Because this is what the system teaches you. They teach you how to forget your right to choose."
For Alyokhina, that freedom would come from studying prisoner rights. She levied complaints that eventually led to the dismissal of eight guards for prisoner abuse, she tells NPR.
Together with her bandmate Nadia Tolokonnikova, Alyokhina later founded MediaZona, a news website that covers human rights and prison justice, among other topics.
Alyokhina also offers advice for Griner's family and supporters.
"Write letters. Connect with her lawyers. Ask questions about her inside the system. Do not leave her alone," she says.
"This is what the prisoner administration is telling political prisoners. That they will be forgotten and nobody cares about them," she says.
In Pussy Riot's case, Alyokhina says the constant public attention gave her and her jailed bandmates leverage and power over the prison authorities.
"When they see the person is not forgotten, they start to be much more polite," says Alyokhina.
"This gives hope and protection."
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Please sign and share the petition against the bill, which bans changing the gender marker in legal documents and medical transition in russia.
mediazona || TGEU
Пожалуйста, поддержите и поделитесь петицией против законопроекта, запрещающего смену гражданского пола и получения медицинской помощи для трансгендерных людей в рф.
Ко второму чтению правительство должно представить отзыв от Министерства здравоохранения.
Есть смысл написать обращение в Минздрав, почему вас волнует этот законопроект.
Здесь написано, как это можно сделать, а здесь и здесь можно посмотреть пример обращения.
#pride month#лгбт#лгбтк#турумбочка#трансгендерность#lgbt#lgbtq#trans#transgender#Igbtq+#current events#trans rights#russian news#tw transphobia
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🇺🇦🇷🇺 RYBAR ESTIMATES NOW SUGGEST UKRAINE HAS LOST NEARLY HALF A MILLION SOLDIERS
Russian News outlet Rybar is reporting the losses of the AFU are now close to a half a million KIA, an absolutely astounding number that agrees with the totals Western outlets have published, combining Russian and Ukrainian losses.
Western news outlets were reporting at the start of the Ukrainian offensive that the combined total of Russian and Ukrainian KIA were about 500'00.
And while that same analysis makes ridiculous claims about the proportion of those losses associated with Russian KIAs, the total given of 500'000 pops up repeatedly in Western reporting before the Ukrainian offensive.
The only serious Western analysis, by Mediazona and the BBC, placed Russian losses at roughly 50'000, though they could only confirm 32'000.
This would put Ukrainian losses at the start of the offensive at roughly 400'000-450'000
Since the start of the offensive, the Russian Ministry of Defense has estimated Ukraine's losses at about 80'000, and even if this is a bit high, it still adds to our considerations.
Even if we say it is half that, 40'000 rather than 80'000, the Ukrainian KIA total of half a million is still very close to what Rybar's estimate claims.
So based on everything I've followed in extensive detail on this war, I would rate this claim as fairly accurate. Ukraine has likely suffered roughly half a million KIA.
#ukraine proxy war#russo ukrainian war#ukraine#russia#ukraine war news#geopolitics#geopolitical news#geopolitics news#geopolitical events#international affairs#international news#international politics#rybar#war news#world news#global news#news#politics#socialism#communism#marxism leninism#socialist politics#socialist news#socialist#marxism#communist#marxist leninist#workersolidarity#worker solidarity#WorkerSolidarityNews
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On the evening of October 29, a crowd of rioters stormed the Makhachkala airport and runway after a flight landed from Tel Aviv. Rioters waved Palestinian flags and chanted anti-Semitic slogans. One of the flight’s passengers told Mediazona what they saw. While the passenger gave her statement under anonymity, the outlet says they have the airline tickets and documents confirming her identity. With the permission of Mediazona, Meduza is publishing a translation of the text.
My family and I got a flight to Moscow via Makhachkala one week before departure, since we had a family emergency. It was cheaper to fly through Makhachkala and the layover was shorter. We heard the news on the way to the airport.
Before departure, while waiting to board, they reported that there was a malfunction, which caused a delay. Airline workers asked whether we have Israeli citizenship, and said that we’re flying partially at our own risk. I’m not sure what their exact words were. The flight was a bit delayed because of that. The plane was half empty.
We arrived [in Makhachkala] without any problems and got through the jet bridge without any issues. A guard was waiting [there]. Airport security was divided into people in uniform and those who you wouldn’t call anything else other than “looking like civilians.”
[They] waited to escort us separately, the situation was getting heated right in front of our eyes. At first, they wanted to take us through a “green corridor.” But there wasn’t enough time. Literally one woman went through the metal detector and X-ray, and they sent everyone outside to the bus.
There were around 20 of us, a few under 30 [people], no more. Many families. Just like the official sources say, there was a child on a ventilator.
The bus was very chaotic, all of us with our suitcases, children. It took a long time for the driver to be able to close the backdoor. It’s not clear whether he could see or not, whether he was afraid everyone was on board or not, but they were yelling loudly for that door to be closed.
He was initially taking us to a plane going to Moscow, but as we drove, a crowd ran after us. We drove for quite a while, but the people didn’t get tired and were running behind our bus. They ran with the Palestinian flag, yelling, “Brothers, brothers!”
People on the bus yelled out to them that we’re Russian, showing our red passports, yelling which cities we’re from: Ufa, Yekaterinburg, Perm, Moscow. Almost everyone was Russian, but many had dual passports. There was one person from Israel who didn’t speak much Russian.
At one point, the bus stopped and they surrounded us. They threw rocks and broke the glass. They were banging on the windows. It was very, very scary. I didn’t see everything since I was sitting in the aisle, and not by the windows. We covered part of the windows with dark curtains.
It felt [like] an eternity, and people outside didn’t listen to what was being said to them. They heard, but they were ignoring it. It was very scary.
At some point, a fire truck was following us. There was no police in sight, but the fire truck came. As if it was preparing in case we would need to be extinguished. [It was all] a bit of a blur. I sent my friends and partner voice messages telling them how much I loved them.
Then they took us to a VIP lounge in the airport. It was more like a two-story VIP building. For a while, they tried to divide us into groups: people going to Makhachkala and people going to other cities.
Somehow, the people in Makhachkala were mixed in with the crowd, and they managed to escape. At least that’s what I heard one of the people responsible for our security say. Out of those who were with us, almost no one was in uniform.
At first, they hoped that those going to Moscow would be able to get on the plane, while others would be given accommodation in the city while they wait. They ushered us to the second floor, we sat hiding from the windows. I couldn’t see how many people were downstairs protecting us, since we were above them.
The crowd was behind a fence — as those who saw it say. We sat there for a very long time. They made a list of everyone there. They photographed our passports. At one point, a group from the crowd was allowed to come to us. [State Duma deputy] Khizri Abakarov, who acted as a negotiator, went up to our floor with this group, with an assistant, I think. Three or four people, no more. They were shown passports and residence permits. They did not reach us on the second floor.
There were many siloviki [security officials] in front of us before we left for the helicopter, but I wouldn’t be able to say when they appeared in the building. At the moment the group of locals came up to us, there was no security. None at all.
[Then], they gave [us] something to drink, eat.
Much later they said, “Helicopter.” They separated us from the luggage, [saying that the luggage] “will come later.” They put everyone on the first bus, told us to duck down, and one of the women said she was told not to take pictures. I didn’t take pictures, but I saw a huge crowd.
The bus driver was again unable to close the middle door. I don’t know what’s up with them. This is where there were sounds of guns and automatic [weapons]. I think it was the security and military [personnel] ensuring that our bus could reach the helicopter. We were loaded into it like sardines. That’s how we got to the military base near Makhachkala.
At the military base, we were told to turn off our phones, and then they took them all away. They gave us a sheet, pillowcase, and rooms for two. Water and rations, which are a separate story altogether. The rooms, too. What can you do, [it’s a] military base.
Those who could, went to sleep. Wake-up call at 6:30 a.m., cold pizza for breakfast. They gave us back our phones, but they said not to take them out of the makeshift envelopes. They put us on two helicopters, 15 people each, so that the luggage would fit, and we flew together to Mineralnye Vody.
In Mineralnye Vody, there was a strange understanding of the situation at the helicopter area of the airfield. As if, despite the lists, endless photos, and almost half a day that had passed since the situation at the airport began, they didn’t realize that we weren’t going to Mineralnye Vody and we needed to go home. Reissuing the tickets took time, and we were pressed for time with our family [situation].
We quickly got tickets on our own, the earliest Aeroflot flight. Since we were the most urgent, they put us into a minibus and drove us to the departures hall and registered us. We sat in the VIP lounge. Almost everyone else us joined us after. We were waiting for the same flight as them.
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“The Supreme Court of Russia declared the "LGBT movement" an extremist organization in the claim of the Ministry of Justice and banned the activities of the "movement" in the country, the correspondent of "Mediazona" reports from the court. The decision will come into effect immediately.”
one more day.
#putting a no reblog on cause i don’t actually want to hear anybody’s insightful commentary on how shit russia is#i know#i have to live here
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what are some russian publications that you follow?
off the top of my head: meduza doxa NG fem anti war resistance mediazona paperpaperpaper (bumaga, for spb) moskvichmag (msk equivalent) dozhd rustamova stanovaya holod theinsider. chikov, refugeehelpdesk, refugee_help on ig (refugeehome on tg) and OVD-info to see what's happening with the refugees. there are more i don't check so often
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New map of dead soldiers per capita in Russian regions (identified deaths) - updated for September, based on BBC/Mediazona data.
by u/Humanophage
The map is based on identified dead Russian soldiers reported by BBC News Russia and Mediazona, based on finding their obituaries or other announcements about their deaths. There are currently over 6000 identified soldiers. Black and red means higher losses per population in a region, blue and green means lower losses. This is only a fraction of the total losses, but they should be representative because the identification is distributed randomly. I.e., it is unlikely that people from e.g. Moscow are less likely to have an obituary than someone from Altai.
Here is a similar map from May 10th: https://www.reddit.com/r/UkrainianConflict/comments/upg7fw/map_of_dead_soldiers_per_capita_in_russian/ , based on a similar procedure. Since the sample is about 3 times larger now, the scale categories are multiplied by 3 and rounded so the maps are comparable.
The biggest qualitative change happened in Chechnya, which went from the 80th to the 15th place. There is also a new leader, Tuva, which caught up with Buryatia. The casualties in Tuva and Buryatia are significantly higher than elsewhere. Far Eastern ethnically Russian regions used to have low casualties, but are now about average.
Moscow remains by far the lowest contributor at only 17 identified deaths, accounting for 0.3% of deaths despite comprising a little under 9% of Russia's population. St. Petersburg and Moscow Oblast (Moscow region) are also notably low, though not as much. Also low are the resource-rich areas like Tyumen Oblast and some historic Russian cores like Tver and Yaroslavl (but not others like Pskov).
Lowest per capita losses:
Khanty-Mansi AO - 1.12
Yamalo-Nenets AO - 1.09
Moscow Oblast - 0.98
Saint Petersburg - 0.91
Moscow - 0.13
Highest per capita losses:
Tuva Republic - 29.16
Buryatia Republic - 26.05
North-Ossetia - 16.71
Altai Republic - 14.89
Zabaykalsky Krai - 13.8
Federal districts:
Northwestern - 8% of the dead, 9% of total population
Central - 14% of the dead, 26% of total population
Southern - 11% of the dead, 9% of total population
Caucasus - 13% of the dead, 7% of total population
Volga - 23% of the dead, 20% of total population
Ural - 7% of the dead, 10% of total population
Siberian - 12% of the dead, 11% of total population
Far Eastern - 11% of the dead, 5% of total population
Crimea (occupied) - 2% of the dead, 2% of total population
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