“Uranium is ace!” (On Angarsk) // antifa notes : russia

Punk Innit?

One of the most common criticisms emanating from the local (Melbourne and Sydney) neo-conservative punk and hardcore milieu — one of whose chief representatives is the Melbourne-based group ‘Skin Heads Neither For Nor Against Racial Prejudice’ or SHNFNARP — is that the numerous assaults upon punks and anarchists elsewhere in the world has nothing to do with ‘us’ (read: them). This sentiment was most plainly expressed by a fanboy named Nowave on the now-defunct ‘Melbourne Punx Forum’ — “No offence but honestly who gives a shit about some skinhead in Russia” — and a fangirl named ‘Fruit Salad’ — “If Russians are so interesting to you, move to Russia.” These remarks were prompted by my posting a message on the Forum regarding the murder by neo-Nazis of the Moscow skinhead Fedor Filatov (Filatov «Fedjay» Feodor Vasilevich) on October 10, 2008 outside his apartment — one of a long string of such murders (including those of Timur Kacharava (November 13, 2005), Aleksandr “Shtopor” Ryukhin (April 16, 2006), Ilya “Ugler” Borodaenko (July 21, 2007), Alexey “Kryl” Krylov (March 16, 2008) and Anastasiya Baburova (January 19, 2009)). These murders are, of course, in addition to the many hundreds of non-lethal assaults upon punks and skinheads in Russia, as well as the hundreds of murders and thousands of assaults upon Asians and blacks (and also human rights activists, Jews, journalists, leftists and queers) over the same period.

Local uranium, for global people

Be that as it may, one of the glowing, concrete links between Russia and Australia is provided by way of uranium. Last year, the KRudd Government ratified a treaty between HoWARd and Putin regarding the sale of this deadly material to Russian industry — about which The Minister for the Yartz, Uranium Mining, Woodchipping, and Shit-Eating Grins Peter Garrett has, naturally, said very little. The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, on the other hand, helpfully provides the following deets about the deal: Australia-Russia Nuclear Cooperation Agreement (August 2008), Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ).

In the case of enrichment facilities, there is a unique circumstance that applies to Russia related to longstanding contracts. Russia wished to retain in the new Agreement its right to re-enrich Australian obligated depleted uranium tails on behalf of third countries in facilities outside of safeguards, due to longstanding contracts with European enrichment companies that hold this material. Russia cannot re-enrich depleted uranium tails at its showcase international nuclear fuel cycle centre at Angarsk (which will be placed under IAEA safeguards) due to the presence of undesirable uranium isotopes in depleted uranium that would complicate the operation of this facility. However, Russia proposes that Australian uranium for use in Russian nuclear power plants would be enriched at the international fuel cycle centre at Angarsk, which will be under IAEA safeguards.

Got that?

On May 11, 2009, Japanese and Russian environmental groups released a statement on the ‘Japan-Russia Bilateral Nuclear Cooperation Agreement’ by way of the Citizens’ Nuclear Information Center. It raises a number of concerns shared by environmental and peace groups the world over with regards the re-processing of nuclear materials at Angarsk:

Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin will arrive in Tokyo today. During his visit he will meet Japanese Prime Minister Taro Aso. According to media reports, they may sign a new nuclear cooperation agreement between the two countries. The agreement will allow Japanese nuclear material to be sent to Russia.

Japan and Russia have for several years been considering the possibility of extracting uranium from spent nuclear fuel reprocessed in the UK and France and re-enriching it in Russia. The re-enriched uranium could be used in nuclear fuel for Japanese nuclear power plants, but there have also been suggestions that nuclear fuel containing Japanese uranium could be exported to third countries.

It is clear that the Russian uranium enrichment plant in Angarsk will serve as the main enrichment plant for such a deal. Russia is establishing a so-called “international center” for uranium enrichment at Angarsk. The aim of the center is to provide a guaranteed supply of uranium fuel for countries which do not enrich uranium themselves, including for countries under international sanctions such as Iran…

In the context of current ‘tensions’ regarding the use and abuse of nuclear materials by the Iranian and — very recently — the North Korean state, Australia’s role in the global trade in uranium should be of concern to everyone committed to real ‘peace’ and ‘security’. That said, I won’t be holding my breath.

Putin’s little helpers

In Russia, the authorities have certainly been doing their bit to ensure a profitable trade — in the case of Angarsk, with the assistance of local neo-Nazis. In July 2007, a group of boneheads launched an assault upon an ecological camp outside the facility, killing one skinhead, Ilya Borodaenko, and injuring numerous others. Currently, the boys responsible for the assault are on trial, or: ‘The case of the nazi-skinheads’ attack of the environmental protest camp in Agrarsk was passed to the juvenal court’ (May 16, 2009):

Special juvenal court will consider the criminal case about attack by Nazi-skinheads of the environmental protest camp near Angarsk town (in Eastern Siberia) which happened summer 2007. The anti-fascist from Nachodka (Far East) Ilya Borodaenko perished after being seriously injured. The court will consider 45 volumes of the criminal case on a charge of 20 young men, 11 of which were not 18 years old at the moment of attack.

Interests of one of the injured at the instance of the movement “Avtonomnoye Deystviye” (Autonomous Action) are represented by the Interregional Human-Rights Association “AGORA”. The judicial investigation has determined that more than 20 young men, armed with baseball bats, ferrous twigs and knives had attacked the camp of environmentalists who protested against an expansion of production at the local uranium enrichment plant. Seven injured were hospitalized, two of them were in serious condition. Ilya died of craniocerebral injury and spine fracture.

21 people were recognized as an aggrieved party. 20 accused are charged with hooliganism committed by previous concert or by a group of people (part 2, article 213 of Criminal code of Russian Federation). Six of them are accused in voluntary infliction of health harm committed by a group of people by previous concert toward 2 and more people (points a) and b), of part 3, article 111 of Criminal code of Russian Federation). Two are charged with voluntary infliction of health harm caused by chance the death of the injured (part 4, article 11 of Criminal code of Russian Federation).

Many of the accused don’t disclaim their political views and their complicity in nationalist movements, particularly in Nazi-skinheads. They noted during interrogations that the attack was caused by ideological discord with environmentalists. One of accused is a student of East Siberian Institute of Police. During a search his study essay “The mechanism of fascists dictatorship in Germany” was confiscated in his house. His father is a commander of Security Department of Zheleznogorsk’s Police department.

Legal analysts of the Interregional Human-Rights Association “AGORA” note that compositions of the courts which consider only cases of minors are occasional occurrence in Russia and that those courts are experiment in some Russian regions.

Juvenal justice is being introduced in Russia since 2000. The juvenal court in Angarsk appeared one of the first in the country. The transfer of the criminal case to such court is caused by the fact that the most of the criminals were minors at the moment of crime.

The case about Nazi’s massacre in Angarsk will become not only the show trial on the greatest Nazi’s attack of the recent years but also a check of forming juvenal justice in the country, the chairman of the Interregional Human-Rights Association “AGORA”, believes Ph.D. in Law Pavel Chikov.

Source: Information Department of the Interregional Human-Rights
Association “AGORA” +7(843) 523-09-53, +7-917-398-12-47

The Russian nanny state is also doing its bit to help the little boneheads go about their (and ‘our’) business by repressing anti-fascist struggle. See : Declaration of anti-fascists of Kazan (Russia) on sentence of Artur Valeev and Renat Teregulov (May 15, 2009) | Antifascists* in Ukraine: Official statement of Ukrainian President on April, 22 is the beginning for persecution (May 16, 2009) | On the attempted framing of the artist Artyom Loskutov (May 23, 2009) | No to repressions against anti-fascists of Izhevsk, Russia! (May 23, 2009).

Naturally, the Australian media has shown intensive interest in these developments. The Age, for example, provides the following reportage:

Newscorpse has also gone to some lengths to document this filthy trade, and the murderous means by which it’s being secured. Thus, in May 2007, Peter Alford wrote the following sentences containing the word ‘Angarsk’: “Though the Kazakhs are deeply concerned to protect their interests from the overbearing Russians, they have agreed to join a proposed international fuel cycle facility at Angarsk, in the Russian Irkutsk… Russia’s proposal for an international enrichment, fuel fabrication and reprocessing operation then starts to make sense by offering a degree of mutual security to Kazakhstan, as a raw material-supplying partner, and to Japan and other potential customers for Angarsk‘s services.”

The ABC has also mentioned ‘Angarsk’: once. It even made passing reference to Ilya’s murder!

HoWARd, Bush talk up nuclear energy
7.30 Report
May 9, 2007

United States President George W Bush didn’t waste time in demonstrating his desire to improve ties with Australia. Just twelve hours after arriving in the country he announced agreements that would allow Australia access to technology capable of driving a domestic nuclear power program, he signed a treaty allowing Australia to buy classified military hardware from the US and he also agreed to hold talks that would give the two countries closer defence links.

…MATT PEACOCK: But Grigory Pasko, a Russian journalist who spent two and a half years in a Siberian jail is in Sydney to warn Australians about another nuclear deal to be announced on Friday, this time, selling Australia’s uranium to Russia.

GRIGORY PASKO, RUSSIAN JOURNALIST: The Russian authorities have already so often deceived both the Russian people and the foreign community as well.

I honestly think it’s not a good idea to blindly trust them about something so serious.

MATT PEACOCK: It’s believed the uranium would end up here, at Angarsk, an enrichment plant deep in Siberia’s pine forests, where one anti-nuclear activist was recently killed by thugs wielding metal bars.

Russia says the uranium will be used for its civilian nuclear program, but Pasko warns that the Putin Government cannot be trusted.

GRIGORY PASKO: But who’s going to monitor compliance with this understanding and whether or not this understanding will be complied with? I don’t think anybody would say they can guarantee that…

See also : Red Skins Russia | Human Rights Watch: Russia | Baikalogy (“This site is intended to reflect my love for Lake Baikal and Russia, especially all things Siberian.”)

Bonus! [For Dion]

“As I stated on the Bombshell forum Andy, you are a liar, a hypocrite and no better than the trash that you fight against.” ~ Dion, December, 2007.

Neo-Nazis Charged With Hate Crimes Murder
UCSJ
May 22, 2009

Police in Balakhna, Russia (Nizhny Novgorod region) detained three members of the neo-Nazi group Russian National Unity and charged them with murder motivated by ethnic hatred, according to a May 22, 2009 report by the Sova Information-Analytical Center. The three reportedly confessed to killing Gennady Dyu, an Uzbek citizen, on May 9 near a railway station. His body suffered 46 stab wounds as well as head trauma. The suspects reportedly confessed that the killing was motivated by ethnic hatred. In the 1990s, Russian National Unity was Russia’s largest neo-Nazi organization, and grew so powerful that its members held joint patrols with police in at least five cities. However, it then split into several components and now has only a few surviving cells left throughout the country.

Tee hee! Tee hee hee!

Added Bonus!

Black-Red 2009 : Russian anarchist propaganda video. Made by new video group ‘Autonomous Resistance’, and featuring footage from MayDay 2008 to MayDay 2009. It’s enough to make a dirty scabby fashion punk piss in their tartan pants!