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Russian anarchists fear a reaction of the authorities after the suicide bombing last week against the federal security service by a suicide bombing by an anarchist teenager in the city of Arkhangelsk, in the north of the country .
A 17-year-old man was detonated Wednesday in the offices of the FSB security agency, wounding three members of the force and provoking a terrorist investigation.
The student Mikhail Zhlobitsky reportedly used a pseudonym to send a warning about the attack on an online anarchist forum on the Telegram messaging app seven minutes before that happened.
He also used the name of Sergei Nechayev – after the name of a 19th century Russian revolutionary who advocated violence in the name of socialism – on the social media platform VKontakte.
The attack shone the spotlight on the country's anarchists at a time when they were already under increasing pressure from the authorities. The FSB has recently launched several prosecutions against young activists.
Anarchists in Russia form a relatively small movement, but with a history dating back to the 1850s.
In the past, the authorities burned police cars and threw Molotov cocktails at the offices of the ruling party, the ruling party.
The last time an attack killed someone, it was at the beginning of the 20th century.
As a result of the attack, the Russian media insisted that the teenager had expressed violent opinions.
"Anarchism: the mother of terror?" read the title on the front page of the main Russian pro-Kremlin, Moskovsky Komsomolets, the day after the attack.
The anarchists, who told AFP that they did not know Zhlobitsky, feared that his actions would reinvigorate a crackdown launched by the security services early in the year.
– "No heroism in this & # 39; –
"We did not know him," said an anarchist belonging to a group called "Personal Defense".
Refusing to give his name due to increased surveillance of the security services, he said that he "respected" Zhlobitsky's choice.
But he stressed that the group did not support the method and described the incident as "the tragic death of a 17-year-old guy".
The group had created the open forum on Telegram where Zhlobitsky had posted the warning.
Another anarchist, who also wishes to remain anonymous, told AFP: "I do not see heroism in all of this."
"It's a tragic situation," added the Moscow-based activist. "One person is dead and I do not see that the system has been damaged.
"There will be just more repressions, that's the only result I see at the moment."
He added that activists from several Russian regions had already warned the security services to begin their interrogations.
Another in Perm, an Ural town, said on Facebook that she had been informed of the Arkhangelsk incident by a phone call from an FSB officer.
In the southern city of Krasnodar, officers have called about 60 people from online political communities to interrogate them, Human Rights Defender Valentina Dekhtyarenko told AFP. AFP.
– & # 39; New turning point in repressions & # 39; –
In March, an anarchist from Crimea annexed by Russia told AFP that the security services had tortured him. He has since fled the peninsula.
Since 2017, the FSB has launched several prosecutions against young activists in the cities of St. Petersburg and Penza. Avtonom.org, an anarchist website, denounced the arrests and claimed that the suspects were tortured while in detention.
For leftist journalist Ilya Budraitskis, these arrests represent a new threat to Russian rebels.
"They arrested young people from different cities who did not know each other, grouped them into a group and built a record around a ghost organization," Budraitskis told AFP.
The crackdown by the security services was part of the "anti-revolutionary obsession" of the Russian state, he said.
"The order to fight the perceived revolutionary threat comes from the top," Budraitskis said.
Budraitskis said that he believed that the attack on Arkhangelsk was a one-man act but that it would lead to a new crackdown on the FSB.
"It's their logic," he said. "It will be used to attack more groups."
The attack last week against FSB offices in Arkhangelsk injured three of its officers
Video surveillance of Kamikaze suspect Mikhail Zhlobitsky
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