Tomás Ó Flatharta

Looking at Things from the Left

Archive for the ‘Russian Espionage’ Category

Anti-Fascists or Conspiracy Theorists? The Truth Behind Pro-Putin Protests in Britain

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Far-rightists all over Europe (including Ireland) regularly back Putin’s Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Some on the left identify with these awful politics. Here is a case study from Britain.

We thank our friends in the Ukraine Solidarity for their article
Anti-Fascists or Conspiracy Theorists? The Truth Behind UK Protests


Nearly three years into Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, and a decade after the war began, a small band of so-called anti-fascists took to the streets of London and Glasgow to demand “no more British arms to Ukraine.”

We say “so-called”, because the “International Ukraine Anti-Fascist Solidarity” demo shared more in common with far-right disinformation merchants and conspiracy theorists than the left-wing workers’ movements that stand with Ukraine against Russian aggression.

The demo was advertised in the Morning Star newspaper, in an advert which demanded “Zelensky must go!”. The optics of a movement that declares itself to be anti-imperialist but calling for regime change in a sovereign state did not seem to matter. This is a group that is happy to parrot Russian disinformation while ignoring Ukrainian voices and lives.

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Free Boris Kagarlitsky – Free All antiwar prisoners in Russia

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BORIS KAGARLITSKY
INTERNATIONAL SOLIDARITY CAMPAIGN

On February 13, 2024, the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation sentenced prominent Russian socialist, anti-war activist and author Boris Kagarlitsky to five years jail
for ‘justifying terrorism’.

This campaign exists to win his freedom and that of all other antiwar prisoners in Russia.


Free Boris Kagarlitsky – Free All antiwar prisoners in Russia (Web link)


Register for Boris Kagarlitsky Conference (Web Link)

Online Conference – Boris Kagarlitsky and the Challenges of the Left Today

CONFERENCE PROGRAM

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Interview with Ilya Yashin – Russian anti-war activist released as part of a prisoner exchange – plus an Irish Clare Daly (ex MEP) connection

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Cristina Mas interviews Released Russian Political Prisoner Ilya Yashin (Web Link)

During the interview Cristina asks Ilya about Pablo Gonzalez (real name Pavel Rubtsov ) who was accused of espionage in Poland. See postscript about an Irish connection at the end of this fascinating interview.

Cristina Mas writes for the Spanish language journal Ara
Cristina Mas articles in the magazine Ara

Ilya Yashin
Cristina Mas

Ilya Yashin—Interview with Cristina Mas, Ara, September 30, 2024

Ilya Yashin is a Russian opposition politician who was released from prison on August 1, in the prisoner exchange between Russia and the United States. Since his exile in Germany, he has been touring several European cities to reach out to the Russian diaspora, which has taken him to Barcelona. Yashin, now 41, was jailed in 2022 for criticizing the invasion of Ukraine on his YouTube show. He was sentenced to eight and a half years in prison for denouncing the Butxa massacre. He is now free thanks to the largest prisoner exchange of the Cold War, in which sixteen Russian political prisoners and U.S. citizens Evan Gershkovitx and Paul Whelan were exchanged for prisoners in the West claimed by Russia, including Spain’s Pablo Gonzalez, accused of espionage, and Vadim Krasikov, who shot a man in the head to death in a Berlin park on Moscow’s orders.

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