It Could Happen Here - Meeting Russia's Anti-Putin Partisans (with Jake Hanrahan)

Episode Date: January 24, 2023

Jake Hanrahan hikes through a forest in Eastern Europe to meet with anarchist Partisans attacking trains in Putin's Russia.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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My name is Jake Hanrahan. I'm a journalist and documentary filmmaker. Today you're going to hear me reporting from an undisclosed location in Europe where I met with anti-Putin Russian partisans. So right now I'm heading into the forest somewhere on the edge of Europe. There's snow absolutely everywhere. It's pitch black and it's very, very cold. I'm headed into the forest to meet with anti-government Russian partisans. They've been launching attacks inside Russia against Kremlin infrastructure.

They've been blowing up railway tracks and attacking military recruitment centres because they want to disrupt the continued Russian invasion of Ukraine. These partisan attacks have been taking place all across russia but obviously over there there's a complete media blackout on this situation so this group have come over and agreed to meet with me to tell me what's actually happening and to let people know that it's not everybody there that supports this and some people are even taking up arms uh taking massive risks to try and stop what putin is up to when russia invaded ukraine on february 24th 2022 the ukrainian people bravely mobilized to fight back against putin's attack on their country russia's so-called three-day special

operation has turned into a grueling year-long battle where the ukrainian resistance has been highly effective despite this chaos it seems that many people in russia have come out in favor of this brutal war even now with over 40 000 people killed and over 14 million displaced there's still large-scale support for putin's attacks on Ukraine. This much is fact. The idea that every Russian is in favour of the war is not. Russia is a huge place with a population of over 140 million. Many people there do not support Putin or his war. Some have even taken the risk to fight back.

As I mentioned, there's a quiet but highly effective network of anti-Putin partisans that are fighting from within. They're doing this by blowing up military railways, sabotaging Kremlin cell towers and burning down war recruitment centres. All this in an effort to help Ukrainians from afar. If caught by the Russian security forces, they face torture and life in prison. Despite the risks, in the last 12 months, there have been more than 80 confirmed attacks against the government inside Russia. The attacks have taken place all across the country as well, from Moscow in the west to Vladivostok in the far east.

There are dozens of different partisan cells and lone wolves. As is with real life, the partisans have varying different political ideologies from far left to far right. For the moment though, they all share information with each other, recognising their common enemy in Putin. One of the most organised groups is made up of militant anarchists. They're known as the Anarcho-Communist Combat Organisation, more commonly referred to by their Russian abbreviation BOAC. It's two fighters from BOAC who I'd arranged to meet in a Russia-bordering forest of Eastern

Europe. We'd spoken weeks before via encrypted email. They told me which country to fly to and then sent me coordinates of where to meet them within a specific window of time. I drove as far as I could, abandoned the car and took off into the forest. Eventually a red torchlight emerged through the trees, cutting the silhouette of two figures. As the two approached, it was clear it was the BOAC fighters. They were both dressed head to toe in black and were both wearing balaclavas. We confirmed things, shook hands and set off to find a spot for the interview. They led me through an underground tunnel to an area they felt comfortable with. Just a moment.

To protect the identity of the Russian partisans, we've scrambled their voice. That voice you just heard, that's Ulya. She's a female. And the other fighter, the voice you'll hear, that's Jura. He's a male. Can you explain the actions? Like, what are the main things you've been doing to disrupt Putin's invasion? We disassembled railways, which leads to the artillery warehouse in the Moscow region.

It delayed supplies to the front, so it gave to the artillery warehouse in the Moscow region. It delayed supplies to the front, so it gave to the Ukrainian people more time to prepare for the counter-attacking in Russia. Derailing trains in Russia is something the partisans specialise in. They've managed to knock several Kremlin cargo trains off their tracks, trains that were destined to deliver weapons to Russian soldiers as they continued to invade Ukraine. We'll probably never know how helpful this was for Ukrainians, but every second counts when battling for frontline positions in war. For example, if Russian soldiers were left waiting for a resupply, which was delayed because of partisan attacks, they might then be overrun by ukrainians

this would definitely be an effective blow for the partisans i asked the bovak fighters why they felt the need to form such an organization we see that we need to create a partisan organization because in russia the state operation is very hard so you can't use some legal methods to do some step-by-step changes. Even if you do some so-called legal actions, anyway you'll go to the jail. We are attacking the state to make it weaker. To show people that we can do it. We as people. People of Russia, people of all the world, we have this power in our hands.

It is possible. Yeah, them, the state, they are small, and we are, there is a lot of us. And the second direction which we have developed since then is coordination of such kind of attack, partisan attacks, all over Russia. Recently we published, I think, maybe even more than 10 attacks from many different regions. We helped small partisan cells to find out how to make attacks, help them with supplies to help such small partisan groups. It's increasing. It's increasing, yeah.

And they're making more and more serious attacks. For example, not a long time ago, they bombed some kind of military railroad near the Ukrainian border. So our power is not in that one small group can do, but that we have a lot of small groups and all together we can change things. So you guys have been around before the Ukraine war started, or at least since the invasion started this year. But that's when you've got a lot more known, I think, online.

We're seeing that you guys are actually doing attacks inside Russia and in Belarus. Very dangerous thing to do. What is it that spurred you guys on? Why are you doing this? Why are you taking such a risk to basically attack Putin in his own country? Because it's not his country. It's our country. We can't do nothing.

We can't do legal things. And these partisan attacks can make military machine of Russian state. Мы ничего не делаем, мы не можем делать легальных действий, и эти атаки могут сделать военную машину в России. Мы срезаем сети, атакуем военные центры, поэтому армия становится слабее, и как часто было в истории России и многих других стран, was very often in Russia and many other states' history. When the state loses war, the window of possibilities opens for the people of this country. Welcome. I'm Danny Trejo. Won't you join me as the fire and dare enter?

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as part of My Cultura podcast network, available on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hi, I'm Ed Zitron, host of the Better Offline podcast, and we're kicking off our second season digging into how's elite has turned Silicon Valley into a playground for billionaires. From the chaotic world of generative AI to the destruction of Google search, better offline is your unvarnished and at times unhinged look at the underbelly of tech from an industry veteran with nothing to lose. This season, I'm going to be joined by everyone from Nobel winning economists to leading journalists in the field. And I'll be digging into why the products you love keep getting worse and naming and shaming those responsible. Don't get me wrong, though. I love technology. I just hate the people in charge and want them to get back to building things that actually do things to help real people. I swear to God things can change if we're loud

enough. So join me every week to understand what's happening in the tech industry and what could be done to make things better. Listen to Better Offline on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, wherever else you get your podcasts. Check out betteroffline.com. On Thanksgiving Day, 1999, a five-year-old boy floated alone in the ocean. He had lost his mother trying to reach Florida from Cuba. He looked like a little angel. I mean, he looked so fresh.

And his name, Elian Gonzalez, will make headlines everywhere. Elian Gonzalez. Elian Gonzalez. Elian. Elian. Elian Gonzalez. At the heart of the story is a young boy

and the question of who he belongs with. His father in Cuba. Mr. Gonzales wanted to go home and he wanted to take his son with him. Or his relatives in Miami. Imagine that your mother died trying to get you to freedom. At the heart of it all is still this painful family separation. Something that as a Cuban, I know all too well. Listen to Chess Peace, the Elian Gonzalez story, as part of the My Cultura podcast network, available on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Whilst BOAC are pragmatic, focused currently on the pressing issue of Putin's war on Ukraine, they're also looking to carve out a space for themselves in what they believe will be a wild post-Putin Russia. When Putin dies, there will be a vacuum where many other groups feel the same. BOAC, in their minds, are setting down foundations already. For now, though, they concentrate on assisting the Ukrainians. And in terms of solidarity with Ukraine, are you doing this to help the Ukrainians as well, or just for yourselves? Are you in contact with Ukrainians, or is this just like a movement you guys are doing yourselves?

Of course we have contacts. We can't, of course, say what exactly context. Yes, but yes, we have context with different, not only on his organization, in all ex-USA. And other countries as well. Also, yeah. As well, we try to provide information for those other groups which don't yet know how to do things and don't yet have funds enough for supplies because even

gasoline costs money and they don't have money and as well near the start of war our group organized a few attacks like on a mobile cell towers near ukraine border as we've seen from the telegram channels the kind of underground, there's definitely a lot of attacks, as you've said, as you've been doing. How big is your organization? Because it's hard to tell. How prevalent are these attacks inside Russia?

There is about two or three thousands affinity groups and everyone has a different number of members. And what about geography? As you know, partisans act from Kaliningrad, west of Russia, to Vladivostok, which is far east of Russia. All over Russia, yeah. Specifically being anarchists, but being partisans is extremely, extremely dangerous inside Russia.

You're taking a massive risk doing this kind of stuff. Some people are going to see this and go like, why, why would you take that risk? If we won't take those risks now, we won't have future at all. Are you not worried? You're not scared of getting caught? Of course we are.

We're not stupid enough to not be. But it's much more scary to live now that you had a chance to change something and you didn't. Our people killing people of Ukraine and making the world worse and worse every day with the dangers of nuclear war and so on. Because if we do it now, maybe we will not have the future at all, not only in Russia, but all over the world.

People on the internet, they'll see what you guys are doing and they'll say, oh, you guys are CIA operatives and stuff like this particularly like westerners that actually support Putin now you know what it's like living there under Putin you know what how would you address that what would you say to those kind of accusations? I think if we would be CIA we would act more effectively but we act with those forces with those resources which we have Ми б мали справитися більш ефективно. Але ми працюємо з тими військами, з тими ресурсами, які ми маємо. Ми намагаємося збільшити їх, але, як я вже сказав, це час, це процес. Зі зірою партизанських атак до повної партизанської війни. Якби ми були ЦРУ, ми б мали багато більших ресурсів, ніж зараз.

Так, ми маємо домашні бомби, або будь-яке інше, яке ми можемо зберігати. Або навіть, розмовлячи про ресурси, які ми використовували, коли ми дістанували рівні, ми використовували прості інструменти, які можна купити в хардверні. disassembled railways we used simple instruments which we could be bought in hardware store we are showing people that they can just go to the store and buy those tools and do that themselves it's not just you know us doing some stuff with some specific materials you can only get in the dark net. Now, let's be honest, it's likely the CIA are up to something in Russia, considering their past history. But personally, I believe, Boak, when they say they're nothing to do with that,

I think it would be pretty unlikely that the CIA would help an anarcho-communist group when there are ultra-nationalist groups doing similar things. How do you get the information? Like, how do you know which railway to blow up? We use Wikimapia, a service which provides... Description for each object. ...on the map, and everyone can contribute to it. So you just open it, and you find,

OK, military object is here, it's doing something like that. So they use Wikimapia to help plot their attacks. This I found quite funny. It's like the modern version of guerrillas gathering intel from locals about the enemy. Only the locals in this case don't even know they're doing it. Scouting is also a big part of their sabotage preparations. But of course, we need to... A lot of scouting. Yeah.

Scouting? Yeah. Like you check out the police? Yeah, of course. Many times before the attack. I know that anarchists, specifically in Russia, have been tortured quite a lot if they're captured for anything. What do you think would happen to you guys if you got caught? For sure, we're going to be tortured as well.

If we will live enough, because we are not planning to get caught empty-handed. We don't give any information on our comrades and when you are tortured it's hard to say would or would not you break. You never know how you react to torture. So it's better to prevent this by dying fighting. Does that mean you have firearms? If you want to do a revolution you can do it without firearms. Why are you doing this? Why are you giving us the interview?

Why do you want this information to get out there? We think that it's important that people see us not as some internet warriors. We want people to hear our voices and to hear what we have to say. We don't want people to think that we are some shady organization, but we want them to see that we are real people just like them and just like us they can do things that we do a lot of it is online but there's there's definitely a perception that all russians agree with the invasion the destruction of ukraine what putin wants to do obviously people like you very clearly, you know, a small

but effective resistance against Putin's policies. What do you think about that? How would you respond to that? Is it in the country? Are more people against it than it would seem or what? There are a lot more people against it than it seems, because propaganda shows only people who agree with Putin and many many people don't agree and many people just just silent because they're afraid to lose their jobs if you you beat dog every day then some day it will think that you I live like that it's normal you So as we see, a lot of people in Russia are also victims of Putin's regime. At the moment, they just don't think that if they speak up, they'll change anything. I think our main message is that people shouldn't just sit and wait that someone else is going to do anything for them.

They should take their lives in their own hands. As we often repeat, if not we, then who? If not now, then when? Thank you very much. Good luck with everything. Thanks very much. With that, the two partisans from Bowak vanished into the forest. As Russia's war on Ukraine approaches its 12th month, Russian partisans like the ones I spoke to are continuing to disrupt Putin's war effort from within. Organizations like BOAC are fighting an uphill battle, but still their attacks

have definitely been effective. As we said, several military trains have been derailed and word of the partisan underground is spreading. Whilst there's next to no Russian state media coverage on this, the Russian government is clearly aware of it. Security around Russian train tracks has been tightened and a Russian court has fined the Telegram app for allowing partisan networks to share information there, not to mention the uptick in unexplained fires breaking out across the country. Even though Putin's government acts like they can't see them, they know the partisans are there. If you want to watch the extended documentary version of this reporting,

go to youtube.com slash popular front and look for the documentary Russia's Anti-Putin Underground. Music in this episode of It Could Happen Here was by Sam Black. See his music at samblackpf.com. Reporting, production, editing was by me. You can follow me at jake__hanrahan. H-A-N-R-A-H-A-N.

Please do check out my platform, Independent Grassroots Conflict Reporting, www.popularfront.co. You should probably keep your lights on for Nocturnal Tales from the Shadow. Join me, Danny Trails, and step into the flames of fright. An anthology podcast of modern day horror stories inspired by the most terrifying legends and lore of Latin America. by the most terrifying legends and lords of Latin America. Listen to Nocturno on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hi, I'm Ed Zitron, host of the Better Offline podcast,

and we're kicking off our second season digging into Tex Elite and how they've turned Silicon Valley into a playground for billionaires. From the chaotic world of generative AI to the destruction of Google search, Better Offline is your unvarnished and at times unhinged look at the underbelly of tech brought to you by an industry veteran with nothing to lose. Listen to Better Offline on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, wherever else you get your podcasts from. On Thanksgiving Day, 1999, five-year-old Cuban boy Elian Gonzalez was found off the coast of Florida. And the question was, should the boy go back to his father in Cuba? Mr. Gonzalez wanted to go home and he wanted to take his son with him.

Or stay with his relatives in Miami. Imagine that your mother died trying to get you to freedom. Listen to Chess Peace, the Elian Gonzalez story, on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.