At the end of November, the anarchist Ruslan Siddiqui was arrested on suspicion of organising the derailment of a goods train in Ryazan province. On 2 December, the Dorogomilovsky district court in Moscow sent Ruslan to pre-trial detention.
Acts of railway sabotage are now quite common in Russia. Partisans use these to block the delivery of military supplies to the armed forces operating on Ukrainian territory.
The derailment occurred on 11 November, 190 kilometres out from the Moscow terminal. Kommersant newspaper reported the details as follows: “Due to the detonation of improvised explosive devices (two bombs, each equivalent to 3kg of TNT, were placed 10 metres from each other on a bypass used by goods trains), a 300 metre stretch of track was damaged. A crater opened up, and the first 19 carriages of goods train no. 2018 fell into a ditch. The explosion broke the window of the train driver’s cabin, and the driver sustained non-serious injuries”.
The security services have also stated that Ruslan Siddiqui was involved in an attack on the military airport in Ryazan on 20 July. Four quadrocopters, loaded with explosives, were flown on to the Dyagilevo base.
Ruslan has now been charged with a “terrorist act” (Article 205 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, parts 2.a and 2.v) and “possession of explosive material” (Article 222.1, part 3.a). He is threatened with between 12 and 30 years’ imprisonment.
Ruslan’s comrades have contacted the anti-war human rights initiative “Solidarity Zone“. This is how they described him:
“As one mutual comrade said, ‘Ruslan is a person of action’. And that’s really it: Ruslan undertakes difficult tasks, without wasting words. He grasps the essence of any situation quickly and works out how to respond. As a friend he is always responsive, always ready to help. He loves adventure sports such as trekking and cycling marathons. He has travelled many times to the Chernobyl and Belarussian Exclusion Zones [established after the nuclear explosion in 1986, now uninhabited, richly forested areas].
Ruslan is a proponent of anarchist ideas, and the Russian military aggression against Ukraine distressed him greatly. All the more so because some of his friends and comrades died in that conflict, and people continue to die there. And now he himself has become a victim of state violence, and our support is important to him”.
Address for letters: Russia, 109382 Moscow, ul. Verkhnie Polya 57, SIZO-7, Siddiqui Ruslan Kasemovich (d.o.b. 1988). You can send letters through the on-line service PrisonMail.online.
How to write a letter to a prisoner if you are not in Russia?
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