Industrial Workers of the World

Russian Anarchist, "Skat" Baburova Assassinated Anastasia "Skat" Baburova, 30.11.1983-19.01.2009 http://news.infoshop.org/newspics/2009/nastya.jpg

Our friend and comrade Skat was murdered today in Moscow, shot to head by an assassin. Assassin was not after her - he was after advocate Stanislav Markelov, another good friend and comrade. We do not know who was there to kill Stas - it could be associates of some war criminals he put to prison, it could be connected to some corporate crimes, it could be Nazis, many of whom Stas put to prison as well. List of achievements of Stas is so long, that it will take a couple of days to gather all of them to a necrology - and list of his enemies is even longer. But we know for sure, that Nastya had a bad luck of being in a wrong place in wrong time.

Assassin shot her to head as well, either to eliminate a witness, or in order to escape - some witnesses have stated that Nastya attempted to arrest assassin. Stas died in place, Nastya died in hospital few hours afterwards. Nastya was a graduate of journalist faculty of Moscow State University. She worked a while in "Izvestiya", but left and worked as a freelancer. During last few months she wrote to critical paper "Novaya Gazeta", mostly about far right.

Nastya was an anarchist and was involved in numerous activist projects. She was involved in anti-repression issues, such as solidarity actions in Moscow for repressed French activists Ivan and Bruno, and later last year in solidarity work for Tarnac 9. Last year she was actively involved in attempts to defense a dormitory in Yasniy Passage, inhabited by refugees from conflict regions of Caucasus, against violent takeover of the premises by UFSIN (Administration of Federal Service for Execution of Punishment, that is Russian federal prison administration). Nastya was arrested in that action.

Nastya also joined protest camp of Rainbow Keepers last summer in Sasovo of Ryazan region, and campaign against police brutality in spring of 2008. She also traveled to European social forum in Malmö in September 2008. She was co-organising alternative media section in Russian conference Anticapitalism-2008. Nastya also helped in work with latest issue #30 of Avtonom journal. She joined Autonomous Action a day before she got murdered. Inside the movement, Nastya got well along with everyone. Nastya was into physical sports such as jumping with a parachute and she was also well trained in martial arts. She never went around unarmed, but her knife was not a match against a gun. Nastya was a positive person of exceptional spirit. She will be missed by parents, friends and comrades from all around Russia and Ukraine. She was from Sevastopol, and is likely to be buried there. She had a blog:

http://file-028.livejournal.com/

Related Link: http://avtonom.org +

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Actions to commemorate Stas and Nastya around Russia 20th January in Moscow, St. Petersburg and Grozniy, various actions were organized to commemorate Stas Markelov and Anastasiya Baburova, murdered on 19th January. At noon around 400 people gathered at the location of the murder to leave flowers. Police and several busloads of OMON riot police were present at the spot, but eventually did not intervene. Moscow anarchists decided that candles and flowers were not enough of a reaction to such an outrageous murder, so they decided to organise an illegal demonstration. The first gathering place was leaked to the police and it was surrounded by a tight cordon of OMON. Eventually the gathering place was moved to the Bolshoi Theater, but police got there as well and at around 7.30 pm they attacked the peaceful demonstrators. Around 15 people were arrested, with a few more being arrested at the "Okhotniy Ryad" metro station, and the remaining protestors moved to the exit of the Novokuznetskaya metro station.

From there, a march was launched at 8.20 pm which blocked Pyatnitskaya street. The march went to Obvodnaya canal proceeded by embankment; from there the demonstration moved to Bolshaya Ordynka street, blocking it. People shouted "Fascists murder, the authorities cover up!", "We do not forget, we do not forgive", "Our motherland is the whole of humanity". There were banners reading "No impunity" and "Fascists murder, the authorities cover up!". Trash cans were thrown onto street to stop traffic. At the end of the march, a few bank windows and the windows of the McDonald's at Tretyakovskaya metro station were trashed. Altogether around 200 people joined the demonstration. During the action, around 50 people were arrested altogether, a good part of them random passers-by, but it seems everyone was released without charge during the same evening. The text of a leaflet is available in Russian at

http://www.avtonom.org/index.php?nid=2190,

but it could not be distributed at the action as the whole print run got confiscated before it started.

In St. Petersburg, around 100 people gathered at Ligovskiy street at 7pm. This was an openly announced action and the police attempted to stop it. However, people managed to launch a march towards Marsova fields, where there is a memorial to the victims of White terror. There, a small meeting was organised.

There was also a rather strange demonstration in Chechnya. This was officially sanctioned by the authorities, and among the various human rights organizations there were such strange entities as the "Ramzan Kadyrov Fan Club". It was reported, that more than 1,000 people joined the demonstration. Stas and Nastya were definitely no fans of the current totalitarian regime in Chechnya, however Stas was defending the interests of relatives of victims in two most prominent Russian war crimes courts. Whereas the current Chechen regime is not too keen to punish their own power structures for human rights violations, they pursue the course of prosecuting non-Chechen Russian army officials for reasons of public relations, and also to erase from the republic all federal structures not directly subordinate to the current regime. Russian version (with photos): http://www.avtonom.org/index.php?nid=2190

More photos: http://anatrrra.livejournal.com/106028.html

http://sterm-fuck.livejournal.com/115603.html

http://ru.indymedia.org/newswire/display/21476/index.php