REPRESSION TARGETS CHITA ANARCHISTS ALREADY JAILED FOR WAR RESISTANCE AND ANTI-REGIME GRAFFITI ~ Antti Rautiainen ~ The regional prosecutor’s office for the Trans-Baikal region in eastern Siberia has submitted a petition to a local court to recognize the “Trans-Baikal Left Association” as a terrorist organisation. The petition refers to the telegram channel 75zlo, allegedly maintained by jailed anarchists Aleksandr Snezhkov and Lyubov Lizunova, which the petition asks to declare as “leaders” of this association. The court hearing is scheduled for January 13. Currently the channel has 72 subscribers, and no posts have been published there since the anarchists were detained. If the court agrees with the prosecutor’s office and recognises 75zlo as a “terrorist community”, any activity related to it will be prohibited. In Russia, “forming a terrorist organisation” is punishable from 15 years in prison to a life sentence. Aleksandr does not agree with the prosecutor’s claim and will seek to participate in the hearing. Snezhkov and Lizunova, then 19 and 16 years old, were arrested in October 2022 in Chita, Eastern Siberia, and accused of “vandalism” and “propaganda of terrorism” for spraying graffiti against the regime and maintaining anti-war Telegram channels. More than two years later, in November 2024, they were sentenced by a military court to 6 and 3.5 years in prison, respectively. 75 is the regional code of the Trans-Baikal region used in car licence plates, and zlo is an acronym for both the Trans-Baikal Left Association and the popular anti-police slogan “to revenge everything on cops”. Last October, Snezhkov was sentenced to an additional five years for “justification of terrorism” for reading his case files to his cellmates. During his imprisonment, Snezhkov has been sent to solitary confinement for long periods, last spring he spent 90 days in the hole. During his current pre-trial detention he was again sent to the hole for 20 days. Recently, a support group announced a collection of 280 thousand rubles (about £2,600) to help the two anarchists for costs of parcels during the next six months. Letters of support must be written in Russian (use auto-translate) and can be sent to Aleksandr at: Снежкову Александру Евгеньевичу 2003 г.р. Россия, 672010, Забайкальский край, г. Чита, ул Ингодинская, 1а, СиЗО-1. России по Забайкальскому краю and to Lyubov at: Лизуновой Любови Витальевне, 2006 г.р. Россия, 670000, г.Улан-Удэ, ул.Пристанская, 4-а, ИК-7 It is also possible to write to Alexandr via prisonmail.online using region “Zabaykalsky Krai” and prison “SIZO-1 Chita” -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- With information from Moscow Anarchist Black Cross, Fires of Freedom and Ivan Astashin The post Russia plans to declare anti-war Telegram channel a “terrorist organisation” appeared first on Freedom News.