Moscow Death Brigade
UANTIFABroader context
Sorry, but it's really needed part to understand the situation and take it serious.
Russia’s war over Ukraine began in 2014 with the annexation of Crimea in February and the illegal invasion of Russian Federation (RF) troops into Donbas in April to support the self-proclaimed DPR (Donetsk People’s Republic) and LPR (Luhansk People’s Republic), which are named by RF as Novorossia. Through RF's propaganda media channels such as RT and Sputnik, Russia quickly spread the narrative of the civil war in Ukraine, the independent origin of the will of the people of Donbas, and the myth of two sides of the conflict. The term "Russophobia" (in use since 2004) allows Russia to hide its aggression in the image of a victim, same as Kremlin propaganda construct “russian-speaking Ukrainians” allows to claim control over the lands which do not belong to the Russian state and is clear imperialism and colonialism. Before Russia’s invasion of Donbas there were no impactful separatists movements or political parties for joining Russia.
Thread where you can find many videos with witnesses statements about Donbas in 2014.
The 2014 war subject is very critical for Ukrainians because the 2014 Russia’s war events immediately divided the sub-cultural movements of Ukraine, Russia and other countries of the region into those who recognized Russia's actions as criminal and those who sided with propaganda. Those who supported propaganda and spread it in their communities abroad, thus took part in supporting the myth of "civil war", "proxy war", "Ukrainian Nazis", “russian-speaking Ukrainians”, “Crimean Tatar muslim radicals", thereby dehumanizing Ukraine and preparing the justification ground for a full-scale invasion of Russia in 2022.
The District Court of The Hague declared in its Nov. 17, 2022, ruling that the evidence it examined in this case clearly shows that the Kremlin in 2014 had “overall control” of the forces of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR). The panel of three judges pointed to a number of factors. First, many DPR leaders had previously been members of the Russian military, and recorded telephone conversations showed that they maintained close contacts with Russian intelligence and the Kremlin. For example, DPR leader Alexander Borodai was in daily contact with Vladislav Surkov, then a close advisor to Putin... Further, Ihor Girkin Strelkov previously was with Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB), and Sergey Dubinskiy has a background with Russia’s military intelligence agency, known as the GRU. According to the court, the evidence showed that Russia controlled who was appointed to leadership positions in eastern Ukraine.
If you remember (among others) the story about Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 that was bombed down by DPR forces - this is the direct responsibility of Ihor Strelkov.
Russian FSB officer Girkin admitted that he led the war in Donbas.
This verdict shows that those who still support the narratives of "two sides" and "civil war" intentionally or unintentionally whitewash Russia from responsibility for war crimes, and harm Ukraine on the way to get international help, solidarity and justice. That's what MDB members and their supporters do from the scene and in their everyday life.
That's why the Ukrainian community of anarchists, anti-fascists and members of various music scenes accuse the Russian antifa band Moscow Death Brigade of causing such damage to us, our struggle and the international image of our country. Down by the text we give arguments and proves.
1. War support
MDB did a feat with Karlos Animal from Non Servium on Feb 28, 2022.
Let’s begin from the position of Non Servium.
On Feb 24, 2022 Non Servium gave no words of condemning the invasion and war. There were only posts about themselves and cancellation of their gigs in Madrid. So we can assume that they just ignored the situation.
In 2019 Karlos was sharing the scene with Banda Bassotti who are supporters of DPR, LNR and spreaders of RF' narratives.
Now about Karlos and his environment' modern position. It can be seen through their feat video with MDB who also signed this statement against LDPR, RF and Ukraine in 2014. Obviously, they lied about their real political views.
Just to give an analogy: imagine that you are making a statement against the war in Syria and give your words of solidarity for the people of Rojava, but then in a year make a feat/collaboration with Turkish pro-state subjects who are warmongers and are responsible for the terror of Syrian & Kurdish people. It will be similar to the actions MDB did.
Few times MDB talked about Donbas (which meant Novorossia) from the scene but never named the responsible for the war - RF and Putin. They use general and infantile slogans about "dirty politicians" and "wars" which are true in common, but the problem is Ukraine is a victim of aggression, nor us people, nor our government never attacked or occupied RF' territory. So anytime anyone taking responsibility to talk about us (victim) but not taking responsibility to name the aggressor - they are not supporting us and even making obstacles for practical solidarity. Instead, they are helping to imperialist powers like RF by spreading it's view and apologizing the genocide of our people.
Like in this interview from MDB for plastic-bomb.eu: "Indeed, part of the Ukrainian military is infiltrated by neo-Nazi units, which officially support Nazi insignia and openly hold radical right-wing views. I think that's common knowledge and it's also widely reported in the western media". Why it's not that true you can educate from Illia Ponomarenko: Russia's propaganda created and cultivated for years the myth about the Ukrainian far-right, inflating their numbers and so-called power within the country. And unfortunately many Western journalists have built their entire careers feeding off of Moscow's narrative.
2. Hypocrisy
First, from videos we saw MDB never tell the reasons and never name the responsible for the invasion and war that going for 9 years now. They also never condemned Crimea annexation. So, during Russia's genocidal war against Ukraine, citizens of Russia MDB, consider it morally right and more important to fight against manifestations of fascism in Europe then do all they can to stop their own government from the war in Ukraine. Do they really want this regime fall and if yes, what exactly they do for this?
Every time someone asks them these questions, they answer that if they will do any concrete statements, they could face prison sentence in Russia up to 25 years.
It's true that there are big risks to get into the jail in Russia. But brave people still go against the state by making sabotage and attacks on different objects to stop this war.
Many of them were caught and they usually get up to 20 years. But for attacks. Not for words spreading on the scene or in the private talks in Europe. Such people usually get from 5 to 12 years in Russia. All this information can be found via searching in the internet. But the main idea of this message — struggle can’t continue without risks and sacrifices, or it’s become ineffective.
Do you think MDB are well marked in the situation of political prisoners? It's easy to check. They just need to name at least 3 political prisoners in Russia and Belarus in recent years without searching in the browser.
We think that, first of all, it’s cowardice to call themselves «anarchists» and «punk-rockers», to be such a strong voice and have such a big power in the radical scene but to be afraid to at least say the truth: that your president and your government started the invasion and war 9 years ago. They can face a sentence at home?
We are facing shell bombings, drone attacks, artillery strikes, civil people deaths under ruins of their houses everyday, we faced black-out winter because of the infrastructure attacks. We faced our comrades’ death because of occupants actions on our land. We've faced a pure act of ecogenocide after occupants blasted the Kahovka's HPP. We don’t think we really have to discuss and compare our risks.
Second, after a year the invasion started we can’t hear the words (nor see the actions) in support of Ukraine from MDB — only general populist slogans that crowds can yell on the concerts. Ukrainian refugees and comrades are not in the MDB’s focus anymore. And it’s seems strange and suspicious for us. Especially because of their last feat with Karlos who is pro-russian supporter, for the anniversary of the invasion.
Third, but the real reason why MDB are not supporting Ukraine is laying in their political background. It can be seen through their public statement (which we mentioned already) to support "Donbass" (or Novorossia, better say) which is attempt to justify occupation, war, political repressions and tortures in fact.
At the same time on August 7, 2014 they signed this statement which is strongly against Russian actions, politicians in Kyiv and DPR/LPR. Here is a contradiction that can be only explained by the desire to be notorious and respected in the radical musical scene for their ability to make political statements and reflection on the global processes.
Detailed thread about Donetsk occupation.
They stopped to hide their pro-russian views and started to share them publicly (for a short period) just after their close comrade Anton „Dolbilo“ Fatulaev died on August 26, 2014. He fought for LNR and Novorossia in the ranks of the 'Ghost' brigade, a notorious "leftist" military formation that brought together Stalinists from different countries and continents. According to some information, he was also a member of the Russian neo-Nazi battalion 'Russich' which is a part of Wagner's War Private Company. MDB protected his memory and justified his views and choice in the private and internet talks with us, Ukrainian comrades, antifas and punks.
Read more about 'Rusich', it's neo-nazi backgroung and connection with PWC 'Wagner'
MDB knows that their position on Donbas and Crimea isn't acceptable to Ukrainians, and they cannot help knowing that RF's actions there were investigated and condemned by an international court. MDB can’t say anything honest and sincere about Ukraine and the aggressor, their own government. Most of people who stay in Russia is systemic and built into the system of power vertical. Same with MDB . They act as “good Russians” abroad: playing a victim, blame west and “nazis in Ukraine” but not their own government. They say anti-war slogans but never spoke out direct support to Ukrainian people in armed forces who were civilians before the invasion. They support refugees, but Donbas refugees have to be mentioned separately. MDB can’t go against Russian narratives about Russian-Crimea and pro-Russian “people of Donbass”. MDB can say they are against Putin, but the way they act shows they are not against the Russian regime, imperialism, they are not against the system. MDB is part of the system. They try hard to be safe in their statements, to safely return to live in Russia, because they don't expect the fall of the regime, and therefore - the victory of the Ukrainian army. They care about their privileged life in Moscow and European income through the touring band.
Fourth, they are avoiding us, discussions and support of people from Ukraine. The last year they were on the festival with Ukrainian band Bezlad who are themselves refugees and volunteers. MDB didn't come up to talk or express their sympathy in person, although they had the opportunity to do so and knew each other before. On the contrary, they put all efforts to avoid talking. MDB begins their shows with the sound of sirens, which in Ukraine we hear almost every day and which means one thing - the deaths of people. From the stage, they as usual they voiced their standard, populist and sleek slogans which is disrespectful and hypocritical. It's telling that a year later the Brigade is no longer remembering about Ukraine and Ukrainian refugees - their focus is already on completely different issues.
3. Lie
From establishing in 2007 till 2014 they were so called «apolitical antifa» who were shaming leftist ideas and deny them in general. That can be seen through lyrics of their song «Your cards are beaten» (2007)...
Through memories of comrades from Moscow and this Vova's interview from 2010:
Also it can be seen through their Last.fm and Myspace accounts' bio that radically changed (16 times) in these years. Look at the part of the description in Russian from 2009:
and...
After 12 years, on Jan 3, 2021 they wiped this part and changed the bio. Unfortunately for MDB, anyone can see the change log and it's the description is still contradictory.
Of course, we totally understand that people can evolve and come to the leftists ideas. But MDB are not the case.
Look at their words in this interview from 2014:
And in this interview from 2022.
They are not like: "We had views A, but after years now we have views B, so we support ideas C" - which would be totally understandable & reasonable. Instead they hide and wipe out their real history in idea to create a picture that they were far-left radicals since the very begging which is a lie.
And truth is they were anti-racists who fought against nazis in Russia. But they never were anarchists or antifascists (which is based on politics for sure) but at some moment between 2010-2014 they had realized that they can exploit the radical image to earn money by what they can and love do. So they started to strongly bound their face and brand with the far-left political ideas through the visual attributes, images and symbols.
For us in Ukraine (and the whole international movement, in fact) right now it has bad consequences: we don’t get any help from such a powerful actor like MDB, which is doing even more bad work — because they distract people from the problems, search of their solutions and true solidarity with the fighting comrades. Instead, they are helping to imperialist powers like RF by spreading it's view and apologizing the genocide of our people.
It’s sad for us and we think for you too. Because some of us really loved their music before we researched info about them.
Also, we want to say we have nothing in common with anti-russian sentiments — we respect the brave Russian brothers & sisters who are standing against Putin and government, warmonging and RF actions in Ukraine and inside Russia by any available means. Our dearest comrade and friend Dmitry Petrov died on April 19 near Bakhmut. And he was Russian. So it’s not about MDB's nationality or our chauvinism.
It’s only about justice, their lies, hypocrisy and clandestine war support.
With respect,
UANTIFA
For communication with us: uantifa@riseup.net