The celebration of the 300th Anniversary of St. Petersburg started and ended in bloodshed by the Russian State.

On May 18, 2003 on the Field of Mars, near the Eternal Flame in the center of Leningrad (St. Petersburg) there took place a meeting. The participants came to this spot in order to protest the presence of Bush of USA and Blair of UK. After the meeting it was planned to give a public signed petition to Putin's representative Valentina Matvienko which contained some questions to President Putin.

Some of the questions were: Where did the larger sum of money go to, that was assigned to the celebration of this Anniversary of the city? Why, because many of the historical sights were restored to their original beauty while most of them were just left standing in disrepair as they were.

Putin's Special Forces goons shedding blood of Leningraders during the 300th anniversary of St. Petersburg

The representatives of the Vanguard of Red Youth gathered on this Field of Mars; National Bolshevik Party; the Russian Party of Communists, and anti-globalists who opened up the meeting. Inside of 15 minutes unknown people came to this meeting in black mask sand camouflage uniforms, without any insignias. They started to attack the crowd. They then beat us with clubs, hitting all with their guns, kicking with their feet all who were on the Field of Mars, They beat up women, children, elder people – they broke up and smashed cameras and TV cameras of the journalists that were covering this event. The Deputy of the Leningrad Region parliament was attacked and had his ribs broken, plus having a smashed head. The bleeding ones they threw into minibuses, one on top of another and then kept on hitting them with their clubs. As it became known afterwards, these goons were part of a Special Response Force that is used to beat up prisoners in their cells after they organized to get better conditions in Russian jails. The head of these Special goons was Colonel Alexei Chernopiatov.

. These bleeding Leningraders were taken to the #79 section of the militia, and then taken through a gauntlet of other Special Forces personnel who smashed everyone with their batons. With 40 people to a small cell, with no ventilation, the people started to faint and throw-up. Everyone had to stand. Because of suffocation, an ambulance was soon on the scene, but not to treat the ones that were injured, instead they took three young people whom they called "provocateurs." They fingerprinted all, took photos. They accused us of having contacts and dealings with al Queda and with skinheads. They demanded to know the number of members in our youth organizations, names of the leaders, finances, contacts etc.

Of a member of our Vanguard of Red Youth they asked: "Are you trying to blow up the city on this 300th Anniversary?" They very well knew that we were not anarchists or terrorists, but they thought that by physically beating us we would confess to anything.

But they were mistaken. No one was browbeaten to confess, even though all of us were severely beaten and bloodied. They tried to force any confessions, and seeing that this did not produce results, they began to tell us that they will hold us here for 15 days and all kinds of other threats. Nothing worked for them.

But because some of us were so beaten and in convulsions, the militia was forced to take these people to a hospital.

Besides young activists of the left opposition, victims of this brutality were also a high school teacher, Oleg Krylov, some professors and a dean of the St. Petersburg State University and from many from other faculties. Even some young people that were walking in this park were severely beaten up.

When they were brought to court, the court threw out the charges and told the police to let all out and for us to return to our homes.

Upon gaining our freedom we demanded an enquiry into these actions and illegal arrests.

But this was premature. The real I demonstration took place on May 30th when the leaders of 45 countries came to the 300th Anniversary. The authorities went wild and started arresting hundreds of demonstrators. Again we were arrested plus all the members of the communist and patriotic movements and anti-globalists. The police broke down doors in homes, arrested all of the occupants, even arrested people sitting in the cafes. The young people again were the targets of vicious beatings. At the Moscow train station, before they had a chance to go into the city proper, 5 members of the Vanguard of Red Youth were arrested.

The radical nationalistic young people broke up the McDonald's restaurant protesting the war in Iraq. Of those who were arrested they singled out myself and the leader of the Vanguard Red Youth organization Sergei Udasltsov. They did threaten him with physical harm. We were let out only after the militia was ordered to do so by the City Court.

In the course of 12 years of this counter-revolution, we held hundreds of meetings, protests, pickets, but the city council here in St. Petersburg never used the militia but it was the other forces, who ran amok , against the demonstrators. This could be explained by the fact that the Leningrad police never were allowed to use force here. But, because this was the 30Oth Anniversary, the city police were nowhere to be seen, it was the goons of OMON, Special Forces, all under the personal command of President Putin. It was the directive of Putin that caused this unwarranted bloodshed.

The false promotion and promises before in the mass media were that during the 300th Anniversary celebrations the authorities will be fighting against the mafia structures, the narcotics trade, prostitution and robbery. How this fight against "crime" was being fulfilled I had the opportunity to witness myself on May 30th. The real criminals, robbers, narcotics pushers, prostitutes and their pimps were let go free after a money payoff.

The "Celebration in Blood" again showed who gets the brunt of the state apparatus and against whom the present state is fighting. To defeat and to liquidate the opposition, take away the right of protest and word, this is the true "democracy" in the eyes of the Russian President Put-in. The same sort of "democracy" is now being hoisted on the poor people of Iraq by Bush.

No wonder that the greatest criminals, the greatest murderers were the dear and honored guests of Putin in St. Petersburg.

Masked goons attacking the youth

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