Unknown partisans have claimed responsibility for the attack on right-wing Russian TV commentator Darja Dugina. Whether the group exists – unclear. But in Russia there are numerous resisters fighting against Putin’s regime – from all political corners.
Since last Sunday, Russia has a new resistance movement. In a YouTube video, Ilya Ponomarew, a Russian businessman and politician in exile, explained that a “National Republican Army” (NRA) was behind the assassination attempt on right-wing publicist Darya Dugina. The former Duma deputy was the only parliamentarian to vote against the annexation of Crimea in 2014 and has now used his appearance to read out a kind of manifesto. In it he calls on his compatriots to resist the “usurper Vladimir Putin” and “Russian fascism”.
Who is the “National Republican Army”?
The attack on the TV commentator and daughter of the well-known right-wing extremist Alexander Dugin could have been cleared up quickly. The only problem is: apart from Ponomarev, nobody knows the “NRA” and he himself is also controversial within the Russian opposition. “These partisans don’t exist,” said Leonid Volkov, a close comrade-in-arms of Russia’s top opposition leader Alexei Navalny, in the “Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung”. Ponomaryov, however, claims that he supports the partisans in Russia logistically and materially, and that they have already committed a number of acts of sabotage.
The opposition did not reveal what events these are supposed to be. In fact, since the beginning of the Ukraine war on February 24, numerous attacks on military installations have been carried out in Russia. The broadcaster NTV reports, citing that there had been 23 attacks on conscription offices up to the beginning of July, 20 of which were arson. As of 2021, no such incidents have been reported. However, it is unclear whether the “NRA” is actually behind these files.
83 freight trains derailed in Russia
This also applies to the apparently strong increase in railway accidents reported by “The Insider” and which can be traced back to resistance fighters. Between March and June, 83 freight trains derailed – almost half more than in the same months of the previous year. The west of the country, in the direction of the Ukrainian border, is particularly affected. There, in the village of Titowka, a railway bridge was destroyed by an explosion in mid-April. According to the Russian domestic secret service FSB, pro-Ukrainian activists were behind it.
According to The Insider, they belong to a number of different opposition groups in Russia that are responsible for the numerous attacks. The spectrum of movements ranges from leftists to lone perpetrators to right-wing extremists. At the end of May it became known that the FSB was looking for members of a “militant anarcho-communist organization” in connection with an act of sabotage near a military base near Moscow. She publishes sabotage instructions in the Messenger “Telegram” and boasts, among other things, of arson attacks on pro-Kremlin activists.
20 to 40 partisan cells
How many partisan groups there actually are in Russia is unclear; the anarcho-communists alone are said to consist of 20 to 40 cells. But no matter from which direction the resistance comes, it is taken seriously by the Russian security authorities. For fear of attacks, the planned celebrations for Navy Day in Crimea at the end of July were canceled at short notice. “The latent threat is a serious problem for Russia because it shows that the country is not able to effectively control the occupied territories,” says Hauke Friederichs in the Zeit-Online podcast.
As for the attack on TV commentator Dugina, the FSB was quick to present an alleged perpetrator: not a partisan group, but a woman from Ukraine who is said to have fought in the Azov steelworks. However, there are considerable doubts about the guilt theory of the authorities. The exiled politician Ponomaryov wrote somewhat mysteriously that the alleged perpetrator and her daughter, who was also accused, were “not directly” involved in the attack. But both were evacuated from Russia “at the request of our Russian friends.”
Sources: , DPA, AFP, “The Insider”, , “”
Source: Stern
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