By Against Repression In Russia
08.21.2014
Translated and edited by Voices of Ukraine

It seems that a criminal case is being fabricated against the pro-Ukrainian activist Ildar Dadin in Moscow. He has been tirelessly taking part in various protest actions and events expressing his disagreement with current Russian reality.

The Ukrainian flag flying atop the Stalinist, gingerbread style, high-rise building at Kotelnitcheskaya Embankment in the center of Moscow–this news spread quickly. Soon an announcement followed that four suspects had been arrested [Alexey Shirokozhuhov, Eugene V. Korotkov, Alexander Yurovich and Anna Vladimirovna Lepeshkina].

According to official statements, these persons had actually climbed on the building and, as is usual for base jumpers [BASE Jumping–an extreme sport in which one uses a special parachute to jump from fixed objects], jumped down using a parachute. They say, however, they were at another point on the roof, they deny any involvement in the incident with the flag. Due to this event the Department of the Interior Ministry in Moscow Tagansky district instituted criminal proceedings under Part 2 of Article 214 of the Criminal Code (vandalism committed by a group of persons, as well as on the grounds of political, ideological, racial, ethnic or religious hatred or enmity or hatred or hostility against any social group), reports Interfax, the maximum penalty for this article–is three years imprisonment.

The police abuse watchdog webpage ovd.info reports about “a version [that] just appeared, that in fact a roofer named Hrihoriy was involved in this action (ROOFING is the term for a kind of travel, which consists in climbing/walking on the roofs of a city’s skyscrapers). It was reported by blogger Anton Korobkov-Zemljansky: “This young man went to Moscow wearing a T-shirt with the coat-of-arms [emblem] of Ukraine. He himself is a citizen of Ukraine. I met him by chance on Saturday, he said he wanted to take a walk on the roofs of Moscow, to visit the Seven Sisters, climb up to the star, because it’s beautiful.” According to the blogger, Hrihoriy said that he “actively supports the ATO in southeast Ukraine and is heading to Kyiv to volunteer in the Ukrainian army to fight against the rebels in Donetsk and Donbas.” Hrihoriy himself has denied these accusations. (details here in Russian).

As a next step the news page Ridus stunned with the obviously fake news that Ildar Dadin had mounted the flag on the star of the building: “Identified by his selfie with Ukroflag on the roof of the skyscraper in Moscow. This is gay-activist Ildar Dadin” (in Russian here). [Editor’s note: the Russian homophobia is obvious…Ildar Dadin is not himself gay but has certainly been an activist for gay rights amongst other human rights. As he himself says in a comment on his Facebook page: “Let me be a gay activist to them. I’m not afraid of idiots and sycophants.”

The editors of MIGnews.com.ua turned to Dadin himself for a comment. He replied: “To my very great regret, I have nothing to do with this action.” Additionally, on the same FB post, Dadlin in his comments not only calls the man taking a selfie in the photo “handsome” he also says, “But I’m unfortunately a boxer, not a mountaineer.” And his post with the photo of the mountaineer atop the star states: “[I’m] in Moscow. It’s beautiful after all, right? ‘Hooligans colored the star and hung the flag of Ukraine on the top on the night of August 20. In the morning, climbers took down the Ukrainian flag from the building.’–They’re lying. Not hooligans – HEROES! Glory to Ukraine! Russia will be free!”

The situation is further fueled by clear threats against Dadin on a page that dares to wear the label “anti-fascist” (in Russian).

The most recent arrests of Dadin–as always, unlawful–were:

On August 6th in an action demanding freedom for the prisoners of May 6th–on this occasion Dadin was beaten up by the police (in Russian).

 On August 12th at a rally of mourning for those killed in Ukraine in front of the Ukrainian Embassy in Moscow (in Russian).

His last arrest was made after the delivery of judgment against four defendants in the Bolotnaya case on August 18th (in Russian).

 Source: Against Repression in Russia