LONG READ - Trying to stop the war: the Russian underground groups fighting Putin's invasion of Ukraine
As the authorities hunt down those responsible for a string of sabotage and arson attacks, BBC Russian speaks to to an anarchist group which says it's involved in direct action against the war.
By Amalia Zatari.
In Russia, protesting against the war in Ukraine is dangerous. But over the past year underground activist groups and lone individuals have damaged railway lines and set fire to military recruitment offices in a bid to slow down Putin’s war effort. The security forces treat these protests as acts of terrorism and sabotage. They are actively trying to track down perpetrators - often detaining entirely unconnected people. BBC Russian has spoken to one of the anarchist groups claiming to be involved in the protest actions, as well as to people who have been caught up in police swoops in recent months.
At the end of July 2022, part of the railway line leading to a military base near the city of Kirzhach in Vladimir region was dismantled by unknown perpetrators.
The base was home to the 51st Arsenal of the Main Missile and Artillery Directorate of the Russian Ministry of Defence.
On 28th July, the “Combat Organisation of Anarcho-Communists” (also known as BOAK) claimed responsibility for the sabotage in a post on their Telegram channel.
The post, said that the group were left-wing radical activists opposed to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. They said the railway sabotage was part of a campaign of “direct action against structures associated with state repression and war, whilst avoiding harm to civilians”.
The aim of the action, the post said, was to slow down trains with weapons and ammunition for the Russian military until the railways were repaired.
“Each such step disrupts shells and missiles that would otherwise fly into peaceful Ukrainian cities,” the activists wrote.
BBC Russian contacted BOAK via their Telegram channel and they responded anonymously via email address. The BBC has no photos or videos to confirm the identity of the BOAK activists who answered our questions, but a Russian anarchist with knowledge of the group told the BBC the email address was associated with BOAK.
The group told the BBC that a few days later their attack on the railway line they received a message via a bot, showing a video featuring the disassembled rail with the text: “Are you f***ing crazy? Faggots.”
“It was then that we understood that the sabotage had been detected,” the group explained.
They assume the video was shot by one of the drivers, with the train being heard in the background. Based on the video recording, they believe the train was travelling towards the military unit. Whether this is true, and if the train ever reached the military, the anarchists do not know.
P.S. Don’t believe the cops
In early July 2022, a week after BOAK claimed responsibility for Kirzhach railway line sabotage, Moscow resident Ivan Ivko, 35, and his wife Svetlana Orlova, 32, realised their Google accounts had been hacked. A week later, they found a man filming the door to their apartment.
Ivan and Svetlana are both veteran anarchists and have been involved in the left-wing protest movement since the late 2000s. Over the past few years, many of their friends and comrades have left Russia fearing criminal prosecution, especially after rumours that the FSB was looking for a “Moscow cell” of the “Network” group - an alleged underground network of young people, who the authorities said were involved in terrorist activities, and many of whom are now serving long jail sentences.
Another wave of people left the country after wide-spread police raids and detentions of anarchists suspected of involvement in the People’s Self-Defence, another group considered as terrorist and banned in the country.
Ivan Ivko told the BBC that the organisation has been under what he called “mass repressions” since 2018, and that after a long list was published on social media in 2020 purporting to show people the security services considered members of People’s Self-Defence, another big wave of anarchists left Russia.
In Moscow, Ivan and his wife have already been under the watchful eye of law enforcement agencies. In late 2010, they welcomed anarchists from Belarus in their rented apartment, while they were sought for by Belarus KGB officers due to their participation in protests back home.
Along with Russian security forces, the KGB officers went to Ivan’s apartment to search for them. The Belarusian anarchists had already left by the time, though Ivan and Svetlana believe that following the incident, Russian security forces added them to a surveillance list.
It was in 2011 that Ivan and Svetlana noticed they were under surveillance, with the house then being searched and the couple being arrested. They were suspected of involvement in an explosion at a traffic police post on the Moscow Ring Road. An online anonymous anarchist blog, Black Blog, claimed responsibility for the attack, having also been responsible for arson attacks at that time, including setting fire to military recruitment offices and one police post in Moscow, and the surrounding region.
The explosion at the traffic police post on 7 June was one of the most notable radical left-wing actions and is still remembered as a key event in the history of Russian anarchism. Following the blast, Russian security forces interrogated many Russian anarchists and anti-fascists, detained a dozen, though eventually released all of them due to a lack of evidence.
Nothing was found during the search of Ivan and Svetlana’s home and they were released after passing a polygraph test.
The couple enjoyed shooting sports and offered airsoft training for anarchists. At home, they kept both airsoft and civilian weapons, with all the necessary permits. However, they prefer not to talk too much about their hobby as videos of defendants training with air-soft rifles in forests was used as proof the accused were preparing for terrorist attacks in previous criminal proceedings.
After interrogations, Ivan and Svetlana installed a video camera with motion sensors on their front door, with recording being sent to their phones. In 2022, Ivan got a proof of surveillance, a video of an unknown person filming their property.
Despite repressions against anarchists and their friends constantly leaving Russia, Ivan and Svetlana were not considering to leave the country. They had never been abroad and did not even have foreign travel passports.
This time they didn’t hesitate. Fearing surveillance, Ivan threw away his phone and Svetlana left hers at home. They packed quickly and left for Belarus on 16th July (you can travel there from Russia without travel documents - BBC). From there, they illegally crossed into the EU.
They left a note for Ivan’s brother and parents: “We had to leave. We will get in touch as soon as possible. P.S. Don’t’ believe the cops”.
Police were already looking for them, for their alleged involvement in BOAK.
“It was our turn”
After the couple left, the security forces began to monitor Ivan’s 33-year-old younger brother Pyotr. Unlike Ivan, he was not involved in activism or airsoft guns, and worked as a programmer and computer games developer.
At first, Pyotr noticed ‘close surveillance’, and in August, police detained him on the street and took him to Moscow’s Butyrsky police department. The court sentenced him for three days in prison for a charge related to minor hooliganism. Immediately afterwards he was taken by the police for questioning, this time about his older brother.
Pyotr later said the police were interested in his brother's whereabouts and how he left Russia without a passport. They "began to claim that my brother was a terrorist, that some kind of terrorist attack had recently happened.”
Police insisted Pyotr had allegedly knew about that, “which meant I was an accomplice of a terrorist and therefore a terrorist myself," he said in a story published by ‘OVD-Info’ human rights news site.
He was given written instructions about what to say to his brother in a phone call. When Ivan picked up the phone, Pyotr started reading out what the police text.
“’Hi, I'm with the police. I’m speaking without pressure. Everyone knows about you. I need you to come back, it will be better for me, for Dad, for Mom and for my wife,” Pyotr told ‘OVD-Info’, a Russian human rights project. “My brother then hung up the phone."
Ivan said he realised immediately that his brother was speaking under pressure.
“There was a feeling of some kind of helplessness, that something bad was happening, and we couldn't do anything about it. You sit and know that you are safe, but many miles away, your brother is probably being tortured," Ivan said.
Pyotr said the police tied his hands with a duct tape, put a gag in his mouth and taped it to his face, attached wires to his thumbs and began to electrocute him. While he was beaten, officers kept asking where his older brother was.
He was eventually taken to a cell, and next morning, transferred to a special detention centre, where he was detained for three days. The next time he saw the police was on 13 September when they came to search his house.
The police warrant said the search was carried out under part 1 of Article 267 of the Criminal Code: damage to railways, with the maximum penalty of one year in prison. The case was dated on 26th June, and was based on the fact of ‘dismantling of the left track circuit’ of the ‘non-public’ railway leading from Kirzhach station to military unit No. 55443.
After the sabotage, security forces inspected the dismantled rail on 25June and then found a link to the BOAK Telegram channel. During the investigation, they also found the Anarchist Fighter channel, where they observed calls for violent actions and found photos of the railway near Kirzhach. On the BOAK channel, investigators also found a post relating to the anarchists’ role in the sabotage of another railway in the Moscow region in May.
By the end of August, investigators concluded that Ivan, Svetlana, their younger brothers, their parents, and Ivan’s grandmother may be involved in dismantling the rails near Kirzhach. Five addresses were searched in connection to the case, including the home of 78-year-old grandmother Svetlana Orlova. Everyone except Ivan and Svetlana, who had left Russia, were taken away for questioning, before being released.
"Treating a cat and tuning a pistol"
During the search, a lot of airsoft guns and about seven thousand rounds of ammunition were seized in Ivan and Svetlana’s apartment. The couple insisted they had a permit for all items, and nothing was illegal in their house. "We loved shooting. It takes about 200 rounds per person for one training session," Ivan said explaining the number of cartridges found at their home.
Before the surveillance that forced their departure from Russia in July, Ivan and his wife say they were aware of BOAK and "watched with interest, but without signing up, so as to not attract attention to ourselves”.
"We support the fight against the dictatorship," they say.
They refused to answer further questions about their involvement in the incidents. The BBC could not independently verify whether Ivan and Svetlana were involved in BOAK and the events relating to the damaged railway line.
Ivan and Svetlana "do not recall" what exactly they did at the end of June, when BOAK dismantled the railway track.
They claim that one of those days they were at a veterinary clinic, treating their cat for thyroid disease. The couple could not provide checks or photos as evidence of the treatment, with Ivan claiming it was difficult to find them.
"After the search, everything was turned upside down."
Ivan recalled that he was still busy tuning his Glock TK717T Airsoft Traumatic Pistol.
‘Switching to guerilla tactics’
The “Combat Organisation of Anarcho-Communists" first came to public attention several years ago, BOAK members told the BBC in in written replies to emailed questions.
It was founded by "people with an extensive activist and anarchist background," they said.
Its members operate predominantly in Russia, but also in former Soviet states, the anarchists claim without specifying.
The group refused to reveal the exact number of people involved in BOAK, saying they are about a dozen. Anarchists actively communicate with their supporters and other "partisan" groups in Russia's regions, to share experiences.
Before the Russian invasion of Ukraine, BOAK anarchists say they were mainly engaged in organisational issues, growing membership, as well as promoting their ideas through the telegram channel Fighter Anarchist.
Their set goals were "revolutionary transformations in Russia" as well as "the reorganisation of people's lives according to the ideals of Anarcho-Communism".
Unlike elements of a political system based on balancing rulers and their subordinates, anarchy presupposes the absence of a state. "Communism" in the name specifies the ways in which an anarchic society can exist, with the creation of councils that unite people at a local level and allow collective decisions to be made.
Until February 2022, BOAK members claimed to have been involved in various incidents, though they did not reveal any details. They say they have not publicly taken responsibility for them, so as not to arouse the authorities’ interest. They tried to use their obscurity "to build up numbers".
In early February ahead of the Russian-Belarusian military exercises near the Ukrainian border, BOAK decided to act. The members held an online meeting and agreed they would, in the event of a war, "switch to guerrilla tactics on behalf of the organisation".
"As anarchists, we are disgusted by the war against the fraternal Ukrainian people," BOAK told the BBC.
By January 2023, the group had taken responsibility for four separate incidents.
In mid-April, anarchists reported on the arson of a mobile communications mast in the village of Belomestnoye, in Belgorod region, with the aim of disrupting Russian military communication.
At the end of May, they reportedly sabotaged railway tracks leading to a military facility of the 12th Main Directorate of the Russian Ministry of Defence in the Moscow region.
Almost a month later after this, the group allegedly carried out a similar operation near Kirzhach.
On 4 January 2023, BOAK claimed responsibility on its telegram channel for blowing up a railway bridge leading to a Ministry of Defence facility, without further details.
In email conversation with the BBC, they claimed they had blown up one of the bridges in the Central Federal District, without specifying the region.
"Even if the damage does not stop the movement of trains, we hope that after the [Telegram] publication they will be hesitant to carry cargo across all bridges until they have been checked. This will gain valuable, additional time," they said.
The BBC has no evidence of these incidents, other than BOAK members’ recollection of events.
The group said in a statement the explosion was "not 100% effective", but hoped "the damage will worsen” following the blast and the bridge’s continued use, thus “making its repair even more expensive".
As a result, this will slow down the transportation of military cargo, BOAK said.
BOAK told the BBC that the group had previously "repeatedly organised and participated in attacks" on facilities such as police buildings, administration offices and military enlistment offices.
However, they did not specify the exact location of where these attacks occurred, as well as whether they occurred before or after the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
The anarchists found it difficult to assess the effectiveness of their activities.
"On the one hand, we have not stopped the war, and an Anarcho-Communist system has not been built," they wrote, in response to BBC questions.
"On the other hand, in one way or another Russia's offensive has been stopped, and we would like to think that we played a role in this.”
"One operator, one watchman, one actionist"
BOAK says it thoroughly plans all operations. They first choose which targets can be attacked effectively, and what will attract more publicity. Attacks evoking support from people is also important, as it could motivate others to do the same, they claim.
They prefer to act as a team of at least four people, "one operator, one watchman, one actionist.”
"But ideally, it is good to put several people on lookout to block the potential directions of the enemy's approach,” as it would “increase the effectiveness of the operation," they say.
The group also tries to plan in advance for all foreseeable risks, "so that no one who isn’t involved in or responsible for the crimes against the [Ukrainian] people will suffer."
"If we see that the probability of a risk is high, we change our plans", they claim.
When preparing operations on railways, they say that they always check in advance to be sure that no passenger trains will be running along the tracks they are planning to dismantle.
"We previously scouted out targets using Wikimaps, and attacked the single track railway leading to the military facilities."
The BBC can neither confirm nor refute this information.
"A partisan should not attract attention"
“The main security measure we take is filtering information about ourselves. That is the constant self-control of what you report and to whom," BOAK insists.
The main rule is not to use personal means of communication for underground activities. Each member must have a separate phone number and email, used only through the anonymous Tor browser.
At home or nearby, they never turn on their "work" phones, except using “different cell phones, with a delay in place," the anarchists say.
They search for all necessary information surrounding the group’s activity using Tor or VPN. During reconnaissance and operations on targets, they use disposable clothing and hide their faces. For each attack, or if they are seen on surveillance cameras, they come up with an alibi.
"The partisan should not attract any attention. In appearance, he should lead an absolutely normal life of an 'ordinary person',” the organisation says.
In May 2022, anarchists launched a "Revolutionary Anarchist Fund", to collect money in the form of cryptocurrencies for their activities. Anarchists say other local groups also ask for support.
However, "due to the limitations of the fund," they could only support those "who had already proven themselves."
"We ask for evidence for proof of attacks, including photos or videos, without showing faces, figures, and with deleted metadata. The sole criterion for support is the ‘partisanship’ and how radical the attack is", the group claims.
Since the fund was launched, they have received approximately $3,500 in donations.
None of the anarchists members of BOAK have been detained since the group was set up, they told the BBC.
Searches for anarchists
Ivan Ivko and Svetlana Orlova were the first to discover that the security forces suspected them of having ties to BOAK. Police raids were then launched across the country- sometimes targeting the homes of people who had no connection at all to BOAK.
In November 2022, FSB officers came to the home of 44-year-old Sergey Serdechkin in Angarsk. They rang the doorbell for more than an hour and a half before he opened.
He was shown an order issued by a local judge to inspect his apartment to check for his alleged "involvement in the activities of an extremist community ("Militant Organisation of Anarcho-Communists"), as well as weapons, equipment, prohibited substances and extremist insignia, Serdechkin told the BBC.
"I was very surprised," he admitted.
Serdechkin says he is not an anarchist and has never been one.
From 2019 to 2020, he was a member of the communist Union of Marxists, founded by the Marxist blogger Andrei Rudoy. Serdechkin said members were mainly engaged in "educating novice Marxists" and "supporting the trade union struggle". He took part in establishing a trade union linked to the Angarsk hospital.
Serdechkin actively participated in the Union of Marxists, though he quickly burned out. In autumn of 2020, his grandmother became seriously ill, and he decided to retire from public and political life for family reasons.
Before the security forces came with the search warrant, he knew little about BOAK.
"When the FSB officers searched my apartment, it was me who tried to find out what BOAK was. They said, ‘it’s an official secret!’" he said.
Having found no signs of Serdechkin's involvement in BOAK, they gave him an inspection report to sign and left.
"Since the officers searched my apartment without breaching the law, and did so very politely, I did not make a fuss," he told BBC.
In early December in Irkutsk, FSB officers searched a home of a local leftist activist, who had taken part in anti-war protests earlier, he told the BBC.
During the search, they asked if he knew about BOAK and the Anarchist Fighter channels. He replied that he had learned about them only from intelligence officials. After the search, the security forces did not seize anything and left, he said, asking for anonymity out of concern for his safety.
Several other cases were also reported to BBC.
23 years for attacks on railways
BOAK are not the first group to use railway sabotage to achieve their aims. The idea first came in Belarus in 2020, when local "partisans" attempted to economically weaken the regime of Alexander Lukashenko. In October 2020, the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Belarus stated that since the start of the year, 57 cases of objects being placed on railways tracks in the country were recorded.
After the war started in February 2022, railway sabotage was on the rise again in Belarus, especially in the areas used by the Russian military to invade Ukraine. The media dubbed the incidents the "railway war".
On 27th December 2022, a court in Belarus sentenced three "rail partisans" from Svetlogorsk to prison terms ranging from 21 to 23 years in a high-security colony on charges of terrorism, high treason, intentional damage to communication routes as well as participation in an extremist organisation. According to investigators, on 28th February the anarchists set fire to the railway leading to Ukraine.
The Belarusian edition of The Mirror noted that this marks the harshest prison sentence imposed for sabotage on a railway to date, with the previous longest being 16 years.
"He tried to set fire to the railway at least five times"
Shortly after the beginning of the "railway war" in Belarus, anonymous groups began to call for similar sabotage actions to be taken in Russia.
On 2nd November, four students aged between 17-18 were arrested in Ufa on charges of sabotaging a railway line based on an article of the criminal code about organising acts of terrorism. Such charges are punishable from 12 to 20 years in prison. Aiming to speak out against the so-called "special operation" in Ukraine, the accused tried to set fire to the railway at least five times in order to "destabilize the work of the Bashkir authorities," investigators said.
On the same day, former Russian President and Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev reacted to the detention of students in his Telegram channel. He labelled the detainees "freaks" and suggested that the ban on the death penalty in Russia "can be overcome if necessary."
In December, a court in St. Petersburg banned a Telegram channel which published instructions on how to commit certain acts of sabotage on railways. The court labelled the channel, which now has more than ten thousand subscribers, as grouping "morally corrupting citizens".
The administrators of the channel, which regularly distributes news about various incidents on Russian railways and publishes photos of derailed cars, linking most of these cases with the activities of "partisans" could not be found by BBC. In late October, the channel was mentioned in a British intelligence daily report, saying the group had taken responsibility for sabotage on the tracks in the Bryansk region.
In late August 2022, the channel published data of over 300 acts of sabotage on the railway allegedly being committed in Russia over the past six months. It also reported that more than 80 freight trains had been taken out of action, while "railway resistance" had spread to 85% of the country's territory. It is unclear how the data were calculated, and as such are difficult to verify.
There are no official statistics on accidents on railway tracks. News about derailed cars of both freight and passenger trains regularly appear in Russian regional media over the past year.
It is difficult to confirm the source of such incidents. At the same time, no major incidents with trains carrying military equipment have been reported recently.
The BBC Russian Service has asked the Russian Railways whether cases of sabotage of railways really have become more frequent across the country. It has also sent requests to the FSB and the Investigative Committee of Russia, enquiring into the investigation’s progress regarding the respective criminal cases. BBC still awaits a response to both queries.
"All of them openly oppose Russian military aggression"
In late December, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a bill to toughen penalties for sabotage activities. Now, life imprisonment is the penalty for sabotage, with the crime previously only punishable to such an extent if the deed resulted in a death.
The Solidarity Zone Foundation, a human rights initiative formed after the Russian invasion of Ukraine, provides assistance to those arrested for taking part in “direct action” against the war.
They decided to focus on such prisoners, "because no one is dealing with them", the group told the BBC.
Now the Solidarity Zone supports 12 people, mostly those arrested for attempted arson or arson of military enlistment offices and law enforcement buildings.
"All of them openly spoke out against Russian military aggression or declared their anti-war views in their testimony," the initiative said.
As a rule, those who committed acts individually are in court for committing radical anti-war actions. As of yet, no one has confessed to membership of BOAK.
"These are people of vastly different ages from 20 to 61, with different interests and from different regions of the country," Solidarity Zone says.
“Some were activists before the war, some were not. Everyone's views are completely different, but it is difficult to call any of them a ‘radical’ in the usual sense of the word. We have not yet come across a case where people planned such actions before the Russian invasion of Ukraine."
Afterword
Ivan and Svetlana have requested political asylum in Lithuania, and cannot officially work yet. They live on personal savings, receive help from friends and are learning Lithuanian. His brother Pyotr is still in Russia. The investigation into the case of the damaged railway line near Kirzhach continues.
The FSB regularly reports on the detention of teenagers who damage railway infrastructure. On 31 January, the first sentence was passed under an “act of terrorism” pertaining to the article covering arson on a military recruitment office. Vladislav Borisenko, a 20-year-old from Nizhnevartovsk, received 12 years in a high-security colony.
BOAK members continue to hide their identity. In early January, the Popular Front media project released a 20-minute film, where they interviewed two young people on camera, a man and a woman, who introduced themselves as BOAK members and explained the activities of the organisation. They spoke with their faces covered and their voices altered. The filming reportedly took place in Eastern Europe.
The Russian Anarchist movement
A brief by a Moscow anarchist active in the movement since the 1990s
"Anarchists, after they reappeared in Russia following perestroika, never formed one organisation, but rather represented a network of various circles and initiatives. In the early 2000s, when the problem with fascism became acute, anarchists played a big role in the formation of the anti-fascist movement.
For the last ten years, the anarchist movement in Russia has been experiencing constant persecution and repression. For example, a significant proportion of those repressed in the "Bolotnaya case" were anarchists. This criminal case covered the mass riots after the protests on Bolotnaya Square in Moscow on 6th May 2012.
Since the start of the war in Ukraine, repression and persecution against the group have only intensified, with the anarchist movement currently not representing a large, organised force. Numbers have diminished, with some settling down, some retiring and some leaving. There has been emigration of Russian anarchists abroad, with diasporas found in Finland, Georgia, and Armenia. Very few active anarchists are left in Russia. Almost all of their activities have now become impossible, with regular assaults by security services or pro-government activists on some of the most harmless activities of the group.
The anarchist movement in Russia has always been very small, unorganised, and very youth-orientated. Since 2000, anarchist group Autonomous Action has existed for almost 15 years, making it the largest organisation in the movement. However, the overwhelming majority of anarchists still did not belong to any organisations. In 2013, Autonomous Action split, and the People's Self-Defence broke away from it, a group now recognised as a terrorist group and banned in Russia. Now 95% of modern anarchists do not belong to any organisations.
From the 1990s until recent years, anarchists operated in Russia in a "grey" zone, in a space between legality and illegality, with some publications, websites, and centres existing and being accepted. They were not registered with the state, and from time to time they were subjected to repression, but they nevertheless could exist. Now, almost nothing is possible, so it is not surprising those who remained in Russia have had to operate underground, not because they initially dreamt about it, but because it was inevitable. There are three options left for anarchists in Russia; to leave, to cease carrying out anarchist activity, or to change.”
Read this story in Russian here.
Edited by Aleksandra Niksic.