Moscow: Ivan Khutorskoy murdered by Nazis
Söndag 22 November, 2009 kl. 2:56 fmThe life and death of Ivan Khutorskoy
On Monday, 16th of November, 26 year old anti-fascist Ivan “Vanya Kostolom” Khutorskoy was shot dead at the entrance to his home at Khabarovsk street in the east side of Moscow; according to some information with two shots to his head.
This wasn’t the first attack on Vanya. He was jumped the first time in 2005 and his head was cut with a razorblade. Next time, in the autumn of the same year, they attempted to kill him – his neck was punctured 6 times with a sharpened screwdriver, which is a popular weapon among Russian Nazis as it punctures deeper than a knife. Any of these strikes could have been lethal, but miraculously none of them hit arteries and he survived. It took more than half a year for Vanya to fully recover from this attack. In January of this year, Vanya was stabbed in his stomach during a street fight, this wound was almost lethal as well but he survived. And now, when everything else failed, Nazis decided to use guns – they finally succeeded.
Vanya, who was well-trained in Sambo, a martial arts developed in the former Soviet Union and for some reason had the nickname Kostolom (Bonecrusher), finished his juridical studies at the Russian State Social University with a “red diploma” for almost exclusively the best possible grades. As there are few people with juridical studies in the scene, I had some hopes that Vanya would join the ranks of the activist lawyers when he would retire from street fighting one day – even before he was murdered, Stas Markelov was overhelmed with legal cases from our movement and had trouble in dealing with them alone. Most recently Vanya worked as a lawyer in the Deti Ulitsy (Children of the street) Center, that works with street children and other children with difficulties.
Reactions and donations
Tuesday evening, 17th November, at least four hundred anarchists and anti-fascists gathered at the metro station Tsvetnoy Boulevard to gather financial support for his family. Riot police arrived at the scene to disperse the crowd. Later that night groups of people attacked the office of Rossiya Molodaya (Young Russia) with rocks, flares and road signs. Rossiya Molodaya which is a pro-Kremlin youth organisation is openly cooperating with the far-right organisation Russkiy Obraz (Russian Way) which in turn has been linked to the murders of lawyer Stanislav Markelov and anarchist journalist Anastasia Baburova.
Donations to support Vanyas friends and family with the funeral costs are welcome and can be made by Yandex-money account 41001411894609, or in case you do not know what that is, through ABC Moscow. Write and tell ABC Moscow if you plan to donate money via them (abc-msk AT riseup DOT net) and also indicate in the transfer that it is “for Kostolom friends and family”.
/S2W
Copylefter: “They Killed Vanya”
The following text appeared in the LiveJournal blog of copylefter. According to several folks on the Chtodelat platform, it is the most thoughtful response to the murder in Moscow of Ivan Khutorskoy, an antifa activist. As such, it is less about that horrible event than about the growth of the neo-Nazi movement and the Kremlin’s attempts to control and manipulate elements of that movement for its own ends. It is also contains a very clear call for a mobilization of all normal people in Russia to face what is happening and unite to stop this double-headed menace. Read the English translation on Chtodelat: Copylefter: “They Killed Vanya”.
Från Konfliktportalen.se: Anders_S skriver Obamas kupp i Honduras, Jinge skriver Utarmat Uran, andread0ria skriver The original Apajävul
Måndag 23 November, 2009 kl. 1:50 fm
http://chtodelat.wordpress.com/2009/11/22/speech-of-moscow-antifascists-at-berlin-memorial-demo-for-silvio-meier/