Автономное Действие — Ижевск

8th of March: Izhevsk Cops Armed With Submachine Guns Hunt for Women

On the March 8, 2010 about 15 feminists (men and women) have come to Izhevsk city center to celebrate the International Women’s Day with a flash mob. On this day they were planning to give flowers to all passers by—to both men and women. Young people were going to attract attention to the problem of sexism that exists at both economic level and in the language.

Some of the girls taped their mouths symbolizing women’s oppression and inability to actively participate in deciding on social issues, as well as the neglect of women’s opinions in the everyday life. Other girls put on bar-codes implying that the society treats women as objects and doesn’t allow women’s self realization as personalities.

Suddenly 4 men approached the protesters. One of them was wearing a police uniform, one with a machine gun, two others dressed as civilians, carrying a photo camera. The latter two were recognized as the agents of the Anti-Extremism Center Artyom Akhmetzianov and Mikhail Shoutov*. Without saying a word they started grabbing people and pulling them to the car parked nearby. They didn’t explain the reason for detaining the girls and didn’t introduce themselves. One of them just waved his ID, without letting anyone read what was in it.

Most people considered the detention illegal and tried to walk away. As a result, a wild bacchanalia could be witnessed: Shoutov yelling “I’m gonna shovel that camera up your ass!” was rushing at a girl with a camera, the well-fed anonymous fellow with the submachine gun was chasing young people who ran, fell, got up and managed to escape at gun point. Policemen were grabbing girls by their clothes and ripped a jacket off one of them, the half-naked girl was trying to escape while other screamed refusing to be thrown in the car.

At the end of the day 3 people were detained and were sitting in the car. The rest, according to 10 cops that surrounded them, were “stopped” and couldn’t go away refusing to get into police cars and strongly holding on to each other. After some time 2 women and 1 men were taken to the police station, and the rest of the protesters, under pressure from the journalists, were let free. They afterwards went to the police station and demanded the three comrades to be released. The illegal detention was immediately reported to the public prosecutor’s office and the head of the police department.

But everyone reading this might wonder—why does the Ministry of Internal Affairs let its staff to break the law of our country and arrest people on the streets with no reason? We demand the investigation of this case and bringing to answer the four agents (including Mikhail Shoutov and Artyom Akhmetzianov) who illegally detained the youth on March 8.

*Both of them are known countrywide for their love of illegal detentions and interrogations (often with the use of threats and tortures), as well as fabricating criminal cases against antifascist activists. But local authorities continue to turn the blind eye on these violations and the stains on the reputation of the law enforcement organs.