An estimated two thousand people attended a protest in the Siberian city of Irkutsk on Saturday, and another 1200 people attended an unrelated protest in the city of Samara on the same day. Among other demands, both groups had harsh criticism for the prime minister and called for him to immediately step down.

In Irkutsk, residents, workers, and environmental activists gathered to protest the reopening of the controversial Baikalsk Pulp and Paper Mill. After decades of protests, operations at the mill were finally suspended in October 2008 due to environmental concerns regarding the mill’s discharge of toxic waste into Lake Baikal, the world’s largest freshwater lake and a UNESCO World Heritage Site. However, a decree signed by Prime Minister Putin in mid-January allowed the mill to reopen, sparking renewed outrage from citizens and environmental activists internationally.

A coalition of ecological and civic organizations organized Saturday’s protest, and politicians from the local legislative assembly and Moscow showed up to support the effort. Leader Sergei Mitrokhin of the liberal Yabloko Party and co-leader Vladimir Milov of the Solidarity opposition movement were among those present. Activists from the banned National Bolshevik Party also attended the protest, holding a banner reading “People! Baikal! Victory!” – the acronym of which matches with the acronym of their party name in Russian.

Protesters singled out oligarch Oleg Deripaska, who has control over the mill, and Prime Minister Putin, who they accuse of covering up Deripaska’s unethical business practices, as the main targets of their enmity.

Irkutsk city officials had warned prior to the rally that security would be tight. Blaming “the current economic situation of Russia” for an increase in opposition protests, Deputy Internal Minister Mikhail Sukhodolsky promised that “no excuses will be accepted” for failures of the police to curb demonstrations.

Given that, the city dispatched a number of armored military vehicles to flank the demonstration. Photographs published online of the vehicles, one of which resembles a small tank, were decried on Tuesday by the Russian Internal Ministry as “provocational and not corresponding to reality.” In a statement to Kasparov.ru, Solidarity activist Ilya Yashin maintained that “my colleague Vladimir Milov took these photographs, and many people saw these machines.”

The increase in police forces was especially notable because of the comparatively small security presence at a January 30 rally in Kaliningrad, where 12 thousand people gathered to protest rising tariffs and to demand the resignations of the prime minister and local Governor Georgy Boos.

Demonstrators at a counter-protest in Irkutsk organized by the pro-Kremlin United Russia party praised the reopening of the mill, with between a thousand and 1500 participants holding banners with the phrases “Baikalsk Pulp and Paper Mill – our life” and “Thanks to the government for the opportunity to work in Baikalsk.” One placard directed at opponents of the mill read “Suitcase – Station – UNESCO.”

In contrast to their choices during the Kaliningrad rally, the regional branches of the token opposition groups Liberal Democratic Party (LDPR) and A Just Russia sided with the United Russia counter-demonstration. State Duma Deputy and LDPR member Andrei Lugovoy, who is wanted by a British court for suspicion in the murder of Alexander Litvinenko, travelled from Moscow to address the crowd.

The second protest, in Samara, was initially intended to be held “in defense of constitutional rights and freedoms.” In addition, however, protesters turned out to voice their disapproval of numerous governmental practices, including rising housing and utilities tariffs, crumbling infrastructure, and the failed modernization of the local AvtoVAZ automobile manufacturer. Among their concrete demands were the return of direct gubernatorial elections and the resignations of Prime Minister Putin and Samara Governor Vladimir Artyakov, who is also the former head of AvtoVAZ.

A number of civic and labor organizations took part in the rally in Samara, including the All-Russian Strike Committee, which was invited by AvtoVAZ factory workers. According to Committee coordinator Nikolai Nikolaev, several groups of auto workers from the cities of Tolyatti and Syzran were unable to attend the demonstration because police had blocked off the road.

Given the failed modernization of the auto manufacturer, Nikolayev said after the rally, “people discussed the issue of how to live from now on. The AvtoVAZ workers said that the authorities are not dealing with their problems.”

In their own way of dealing with their problems, regional police in Samara are planning to initiate criminal charges against the rally’s organizers. During the demonstration, voters rights activist Aleksandr Lashmankin called for participants to stage a repeat demonstration on March 5 – a statement that “was not covered in the application to hold the rally,” a police representative explained to the Interfax news agency.

In a press release on Monday, Arkhipov stated that the news of a Russian telecommunications firm banning access to opposition websites was evidence of a growing trend in the country to persecute dissident activism as extremism.

“In this case, the actions of the authorities have once again confirmed that the country and political system are striving towards totalitarianism,” the lawyer asserted. “This tendency will continue down the road, with tougher methods in the battle against dissent and civil opposition movement and with the suppression of the basic rights and freedoms of citizens.”

The statement comes after Friday’s announcement by Corbina, one of Russia’s largest telecommunications providers and more commonly known under the brand name Beeline, that it was blocking access to the opposition websites Nazbol.ru and Limonov2012.ru due to “orders from above.”

The two websites are run by the banned National Bolshevik Party, whose leader, Eduard Limonov, has been integral in organizing the Strategy 31 series of protests in defense of the constitutional right to freedom of assembly.

Editors of the websites believe that Corbina’s ban speaks directly to the success of the rallies, which have recently gained a significant increase in both participation and international attention due to the brutality with which they have been suppressed by police.

Arkhipov was dismal in his prediction of the consequences of such persecution. “[Russians] are going to become witnesses to political persecution, through persecution against opposition leaders and civic activists, and through groundless detentions and political murders.”

Russian human rights advocates and opposition activists have long maintained that legislation from 2002 defining extremism is uselessly vague, and has given the authorities free reign to arrest anyone who they deem to be undesirable to the state. The notorious Center for Extremism Prevention of the Russian Interior Ministry, known as Center “E,” has been a source of particular concern, accused by Amnesty International of torturing criminal suspects to extract confessions. Additionally, Russia came under criticism last month in a United Nations report for its continued use of secret prisons to illegally detain political oppositionists and people blamed for “extremist” activity.

Igor Cherchenko, a member of Russia’s banned National Bolshevik Party, was detained after opening an exhibition of his works on Moscow’s Triumfalnaya Square entitled “My Northern Country.”

About fifteen other activists stood with the Cherchenko while a detachment of police detained him and another National Bolshevik, Dmitri Yelizarov.

The artist’s colleagues proceeded to move his paintings to the Sakharov Museum and Public Center, where a presentation of Cherchenko’s works was to be held that same day.

Cherchenko is not the first artist arrested in Russia while attempting to display his work. Aleksander Shchendov was detained and threatened by police when he tried to display a collage of Prime Minister Vladimir Putin in a dress in Voronezh last June. Artem Loskutov, a leader of the underground art movement in Novosibirsk, was detained in May and charged with political extremism, as well as other charges he asserts are false.

Born in the Russian city of Vitebsk in 1973, Cherchenko has lived in Israel since 1990. He has frequently taken part in activist demonstrations with the aim of attracting attention toward political imprisonment. In December 2005, he chained himself to the gates of the Russian embassy in Tel Aviv to demand the release of political prisoners in Russia. The embassy later filed a complaint against the artist, accusing him of “the violation of state borders.”

According to National Bolshevik member Sergei Yezhov, Center “E” officials attempted for several hours to enter an apartment on Volgogradsky Prospect, but the residents refused to open the door as the officials would not state the purpose of their visit.

Present in the apartment at the time was National Bolshevik and member of the executive committee of the Other Russia coalition Sergei Fomchenkov, and National Assembly deputies Taisiya Osipova, Margarita Filippova, Mikhail Klyuzhev, Nikolai Medvedev, and Maksim Gromov, as well as an infant child.

The apartment is currently undergoing a search.

A second apartment owned by Aleksandr Averin, press secretary for National Bolshevik leader Eduard Limonov, was broken into by Center “E” officials that same afternoon.

Officials detained Averin and his apartment is also currently being searched.

Gromov had arrived in Moscow to attend a meeting with Heidi Hautala, chairman of the European Parliament’s Subcommittee on Human Rights. He stated that the legitimacy of the activities of Center “E” was to be a topic of discussion during the meeting.

The Center for Extremism Prevention is accused by Amnesty International of stifling dissent from journalists and activists under charges of extremist activity; a 2009 report cites accusations of torture to extract confessions from criminal suspects. In November, members of the opposition Solidarity movement obtained an internal memo indicting Center “E” in the illegal detentions of a number of activists. Solidarity leaders are planning to use the document in a criminal suit against the center.

Denis Bilunov, leader of the Solidarity opposition movement and among those detained, said activists were able to photograph a memo from Colonel Timur Valiulin of the Russian Interior Ministry’s notorious Center for Extremism Prevention (Center “E”) to Public Safety Police General Vyacheslav Kozlov, discussing “the necessity to take measures to disrupt the series of solo protests of the Solidarity movement” in support of Limonov. Limonov, a leader of the Other Russia coalition and the banned National Bolshevik party, was sentenced to ten days of administrative arrest on November 12 for “insubordination to a police officer” and participation in an “unsanctioned rally” on October 31.

Activists managed to photograph the document with a camera phone after an officer accidentally left it in view. Solidarity leaders intend to use it as evidence in a court case that they hope would close Center “E,” criticized by Amnesty International for stifling dissent from journalists and activists and for torturing criminal suspects.

According to Solidarity member Ilya Yashin, who published the document on his blog, “The published paper is more than sufficient as a minimum for the prosecutorial review of the activities of this structure, consistently and blatantly in violation of the Constitution and the law.”

Bilunov and seven other activists were detained on November 16 when their solo protests, which do not require sanction from authorities, were approached by men posing as activists wanting to join them. After the protests ceased to appear solo, police arrested all participants.

Boris Nemtsov, a former Deputy Prime Minister and co-founder of the opposition party Union of Right Forces, was among those detained. He calls the men, believed to be undercover police, “simple provocateurs.” He explained his support for Limonov on his blog:

“Many people ask me, how you, a political antipode of Eduard Limonov, defend him. The answer is that Limonov, organizing regular protests on the 31st date of every month, defends our and your right to rallies, processions, [and] demonstrations, as provided by the 31st article of the Constitution of the Russian Federation. Putin’s regime is taking this right away from you systematically, absolutely illegally and cowardly.”

Nemtsov further writes: “The arrest of Limonov for 10 days does not have any relationship to the law. He did not, naturally, show any insubordination to the police, first of all because he is experienced, and secondly, he is no longer a young man.”

Leaders in the Communist Party have promised to raise the issue of Limonov’s arrest and the arrest of the other activists in the State Duma. According to National Bolshevik member Sergei Aksenov, Communist Party leader Vladimir Kashin felt that “if this is how things continue from now on, then after a couple of years the Communist Party could also end up without our traditional processions on November 7, and our position on the freedom of speech and assembly must be asserted.”

On Wednesday, Limonov’s ten-day sentence was held up in court on appeal. Prominent human rights activist Lyudmila Alexeyeva blamed the decision on a growing trend of corrupt police commanders forcing officers to give false testimony in court.

The October 31 protest during which Limonov was arrested along with approximately 70 other oppositionists was part of the Other Russia coalition’s “Strategy 31” movement, in which opposition leaders file applications to rally on Triumfalnaya Square every month with a 31st day, in reference to the 31st article of the Constitution guaranteeing freedom of assembly.

A full scan of the police memo and a corresponding transcription can be found on Ilya Yashin’s blog (in Russian).

Konstantin Makarov, a member of the banned National Bolshevik Party, was an organizer for an opposition rally planned for that night in Voronezh, south of Moscow. He says that on noon Saturday near his home, he was forced into a car by two men in plain clothes, one of which was S. Yemkov of the Russian Interior Ministry’s Center for Extremism Prevention (Center “E”).

According to Makarov, Yemkov announced that “he got them” and that he would now be taken to a reservoir and drowned.

His face was then covered with a jacket and he was brought to a room in Center “E,” where his hands, legs, and the jacket around his head were bound with tape. After a while, several people including Yemkov entered the room. Yemkov stated that he had been very annoyed at an unsuccessful attempt to catch Makarov two years prior, and that the two would now be acquainted “to the extreme” (literally, “by the whole program”).

Yemkov also said that he and the others had been “given the green light,” and were therefore quietly going to kill both other oppositionists and their close ones.

At that point, Makarov says, other people in the room began asking questions pertaining to National Bolshevik leader Eduard Limonov, detained that same night, and his followers. In particular, he continued, the people were interested in the number of National Bolsheviks in Voronezh, who the local leader was, and who financed them. They were also interested in what party members Konstantin knew in other regions, particularly in Moscow. Questions were also raised concerning the financing for the spring 2007 issue of “Friend of the People,” a National Bolshevik publication.

Makarov says that upon refusing to answer questions, he began to be tortured.

He asserts that the men twisted his arms behind his back and strangled him. They also lifted and dropped him on the floor several times, and threatened him with rape.

After approximately an hour, the men said that Makarov would be beaten in such a fashion after every subsequent event held by the National Bolsheviks unless he agreed to cooperate with them. They demanded information about the National Bolshevik Party as well as other opposition movements in the city. In exchange, they offered to extend help to other detained oppositionists, as well as to help arrange rallies and protests “within reasonable limits.”

As a first cooperative step, Makarov was asked to say that he was brought not to Center “E,” but to the Leninskoe Regional Department of Internal Affairs in Voronezh. If he refused to cooperate, Makarov says, they threatened to kill him, his mother, or his brother. After what the men called a “productive” conversation, Makarov was released from Center “E,” where his friends were already waiting at the entrance.

The National Bolshevik Party in Voronezh stated that as Makarov does not have any enemies, anything that happens to him or his relatives should be considered retaliation on the part of Center “E” for his refusal to cooperate.

The Center for Extremism Prevention of the Russian Interior Ministry was founded on October 31, 2008 on the order of the Interior Minister. It is accused by Amnesty International of stifling dissent from journalists and activists under charges of extremist activity; a 2009 report cites accusations of torture to extract confessions from criminal suspects. Police in Russia have long been accused of torture, which the Internal Ministry has admitted is a problem.

The rally Makarov had helped to plan was part of the “Strategy 31” opposition protests held on the 31st of every month with that date. Organizers hope to bring attention to the 31st article of the Constitution, which guarantees the right to freedom of assembly. A related event in Moscow that same night ended with the detention of 70 of the approximately 500 activists, including Eduard Limonov, a leader of the Other Russia coalition and the National Bolsheviks.

The rally turned violent when members of the pro-Kremlin youth organization Young Russia, which had been scattering fliers with the phrase “Western vampires were gathered here,” began to light fireworks. Blaming the provocation on opposition protesters, police began making arrests and forced remaining protesters into a nearby metro station.

Ten activists temporarily escaped from an OMON special forces bus when they managed to tip it over from the inside and crawl out the back window. According to activist Sergei Aksenov, all those detained on the buses were severely beaten by police.

The unsanctioned protest was attended by about 500 human rights and opposition activists, including members of the United Civil Front, Solidarity, the banned National Bolshevik Party, and many others. An application to hold the protest was denied by city authorities.

The square had been cordoned off early on by police forces that included twenty OMON buses and internal military vehicles. Among those detained was Eduard Limonov, a leader of the Other Russia coalition and the National Bolsheviks, as well as activist Marina Litvinovich. Limonov had been dragged along the asphalt by police, and neither he nor Litvinovich were allowed access to lawyers.

All those detained, including members of Young Russia, were released later that night. Limonov and Litvinovich face charges of police antagonism in court on Monday. If convicted, they face 15 days of administrative arrest.

Early November is a time of traditional protest throughout Russia. Police on Thursday practiced new techniques for crowd dispersal that focused on pensioners.

Leaders of the Other Russia coalition file applications to rally on Triumfalnaya Square every month with a 31st day, in reference to the 31st article of the Constitution guaranteeing freedom of assembly. The previous three protests on May 31, July 31, and August 31 ended in the detention of activists.

A video of the protest can be seen by clicking here (in Russian).

The information on Stradymov’s murder first came public on January 19th. Friends of the deceased youth were working with police to get the investigation moving.

A blog run by National Bolshevik press-secretary Darya Yakovleva said that one of Stradymov’s friends, “Katya” was called in to identify his body on January 19th. Katya said that the activist was attacked with incredible severity, that most of the blows were to his head, and that his skull was cracked in several places, according to the blog.

There was no clear motive or suspects in the attack, but friends speculated that Stradymov’s political activities may have been a reason.

“We are not going to make rash conclusions, but.. Anton did not have personal enemies,” Yakovleva wrote in the blog. “It is unlikely that he could have interested muggers, all the more so since all of his personal things that could have had any value remained on him.

“But he had managed to do some harm to many with his political activities. And no one hits like that at an ordinary street fight.”

Stradymov is not the first National Bolshevik activist who has been assaulted and killed in recent years. 23-year-old Yury Chervochkin died in December 2007 after he was jumped on the outskirts of Moscow in November of that year. Chervochkin had called friends shortly before his attack and expressed concern that he was being followed by officers of the UBOP special police forces.

The National Bolshevik party, which is led by author Eduard Limonov, is known best for its anti-Kremlin street demonstrations and non-violent public pranks. The party has been banned repeatedly by authorities, and a number of its members are currently behind bars.

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Read about Limonov and the National Bolshevik Party from the New York Times and from Radar Magazine.

The National Bolshevik Party, which is vocally critical of former President Vladimir Putin and the current administration, has been banned on and off since its inception. Its activists have a record of leading peaceful street demonstrations and direct action protest events, and have been a frequent target of arrests and clampdowns. Members have received extended prison sentences for what they see as minor pranks.

Two other National Bolshevik activists, Roman Mishurov and Yekaterina Zhukova were detained in connection with the charges on July 23rd. They have been released with an order not to leave town.

Law enforcement officials also searched the apartments of a number of Samara National Bolsheviks, seizing computer system blocks, and the group’s promotional materials.

Similar charges of “extremism” have been used to target religious groups, human rights organizations, newspapers and even art curators. A community to document cases launched under the controversial article 282 even exits on LiveJournal (Rus), Russia’s most popular blogging service.

“At the present moment, people wishing to attend the exhibit are gathered by the entrance, however they are facing an shut door,” said Natalya Chernova, the artist behind the opening. Before the exhibit began, building personnel told Chernova that the show must be stopped for technical reasons: Simultaneously, the electricity had been cut, the roof had leaked and the sewage pipes had burst. According to Chernova, the building super then began taking down her artwork.

Meanwhile, a van-load of OMON riot police arrived at the scene. Law enforcement officers, led by the militsiya, arrested two people waiting to the show to begin. “They came earlier, and were smoking and standing by the entrance,” Chernova said. The militsiya also took down the names and identifying information of the artist as well as the exhibit’s organizers.

Natalya Chernova created the exhibit’s artwork and poetry while locked away in pre-trial detention over a 2004 stunt organized by the banned National Bolshevik Party. During the Moscow protest, around 40 National Bolshevik activists stormed the presidential information administration building, and denounced reforms to regional elections legislation and state welfare benefits enacted by President Vladimir Putin. Chernova was ultimately sentenced to three years behind bars for her role in the event.