Self-defense is not an offence - solidarity with Yura from Vladivostok!

On the 22nd of November two nazi skinheads attacked anarchist anti-fascist activist Yura M. in Vladivostok (Russian Far East). Nazis met Yura on a bus, they recognised him, they knew that he is an active anarchist and antifascist, so after he left the bus they attacked him and hit him a couple of times. Yura used a knife to defend himself and stabbed both of the attackers, who were bigger than him. Nazis started running away - one of them soon fell down and died, the
other broke both of his legs while he was jumping off a parapet. Yura called the ambulance and waited until it arrived, after this he was arrested by cops. Yura was shocked - he did not intend to kill anyone.

Yura is an active participant of anarchist and antifascist movement. In the Summer of 2007 he participated in the antinuclear protest camp in Angarsk, Irkutsk Region (East Siberia). On the 21st of July 2007 the camp was violently attacked by Nazis, one activist was murdered (good friend of Yura, Ilya Borodaenko from Nakhodka near Vladivostok), Yura was one of the few people who were fast enough to resist attackers in Angarsk, so severely beaten and spent more than two months in a hospital, fighting for his life due to complications which were a result of neglect during first hours of his hospitalization. His health condition still remains weak, and after Angarsk event he got a disability status. But he continued his activities in Vladivostok anyway and got multiple threats from local Nazis.

Yura has played a crucial role in organizing anarchist and anti-fascist
movements in Russian far East. He set up Pacific Rim Autonomous Action
(which later splitted to Nahodka Autonomous Action and Vladivostok
Autonomous Action due to distance between cities, but Nahodka group
dwindled after death of Ilya). During last year, Yura grew disillusioned
with the federation concept of the organization, and moved more towards
insurrectionalist direction of anarchism, and he left Vladivostok
Autonomous Action with most of the members of the group. However he
stayed in friendly terms with Autonomous Action and participated to
internal discussions of the organization. In
http://avtonom.org/index.php?nid=2048 you may read (only in Russian)
criticism of the organization he recently wrote. He also kept publishing
local anarchist paper "Udar", back issues of which are available in
avtonom.org in PDF format.

Vladivostok is among the Russian cities, where street war between Nazis
in other side and anarchists and antifascists in another side is most
intense. On some incidents you may read from
http://avtonom.org/index.php?nid=2003 and from
http://avtonom.org/index.php?nid=1237

Yura has now been released from custody, and murder charges changed to
"exceeding limits of necessary self-defense". However various costs
relating to his case are already 5500 euros, so his family is very much
in a need of support!

You may donate through bank accounts and internet purses of ABC-Moscow.
They are available in http://www.avtonom.org/index.php?nid=1912.

Always contact ABC-Moscow if you made a donation: abc-msk AT riseup DOT net