14-15 February: the action outside FSB headquarters, Chelyabinsk. Source: Popular Self-Defence group / VKonktate. In late January, news that Viktor Filinkov, a left-wing activist and computer programmer, had disappeared (24 January) at St Petersburg’s Pulkovo airport was followed by arrests and searches (26 January) at the apartments of anti-fascist activists in the city. When Filinkov then surfaced in court and pre-trial detention, he stated he had been tortured by officers of Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) – as did a witness in the case, Ilya Kapustin. Another Petersburg anti-fascist, Igor Shishkin, also disappeared after his apartment was searched.
As it later became known, the Penza branch of the FSB opened an investigation into a “terrorist organisation” (Section Two of Article 205.4 of Russia’s Criminal Code) in October 2017 – and are charging six people in this case, some of whom have been tortured. The news of the “Penza-Petersburg” case has understandably stirred Russian activist circles, leading to a series of public pickets against FSB torture.
