February 11 2013

 

Philip Philoppovich Dolbunov (better known in the media by his pseudonym, Philip Galtsov) is an activist of the Russian Socialist Movement, an anti-fascist, and a regular participant in protest actions in Moscow and other Russian cities. On numerous occasions, he remained at political actions, including that of May 6th 2012, when the police provoked a clash with citizens who had come to the rally peacefully. He was one of the first to respond to the lawyers’ appeals and step forward as a witness in the trial of Stepan Zimin, accused of participating in the May 6th 2012 disturbances in Moscow.

At the beginning of June 2012, namely the 7th of June, police collaborators broke into Philip’s place of residence with a search order. Philip was not at home, but the search was carried out regardless of his absence. As a result, they confiscated several of Dolbunov’s books. When he learned about this, Philip was compelled to leave Russian soil for the entire summer, fearing for his personal safety and persecution from the secret service. His relatives received, and to this day continue to receive regular threats from secret service employees.

After the television channel NTV ran the film “Anatomy of Protest – 2,” the secret service began actively searching for Philip. During a search on October 25th, police collaborators were allowed to commit a whole row of violations, including breaking down the entrance door to the apartment, applying psychological pressure to his relatives, and also confiscating a computer and personal belongings. After the search, he was delivered for interrogation to the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation (SK RF). In particular, MVD operatives and the investigator Timofei Vladimirovich Grachev employed violence and threats of physical punishment during the interrogation, unless he agreed to give evidence against Sergei Udalstov, Leonid Razvozzhaev and Konstantin Lebedev. Despite the fact that Dolbunov had been brought in as a witness, he was placed in handcuffs after the interrogation and was released only after several hours of heightened mass media agitation.

Dolbunov is also an active participant in the anti-fascist movement in Russia. There have been documented neo-Nazi attacks on Philip: in particular in 2009, several men attacked him near a building entrance and beat him, as a result of which he was found to have a knife wound and many injuries, fairly seriously impacting Philip’s health.

Quite recently, the media received a fragment of a so-called “confession appearance” by Leonid Razvozzhaev, in which Dolbunov is named as a man “heading a column of anarchists that resultingly provoked mass disturbances on Bolotnaya Square on May 6th.” I suspect that this slander against Dolbunov was beaten out of Leonid Razvozzhaev through torture, after the latter’s abduction from Kiev in October of 2012.

Please pay note: Ukraine is not a safe government for Dolbunov, given Leonid Razvozzhaev’s disappearance and the lack of a corresponding investigation in Ukraine. I also call your attention to the history of the Ukrainian government’s failure to provide Aleksandr Dolmatov with refugee status, in the absence of a real threat to his life upon return to Russia, as judged by the receiving government’s officials.

In view of the above, I ask that you grant asylum to Philip Philopovich Dolbunov on the territory of an objectively safe government.