Beatings and arson attacks on social media users represents new frontier in intimidation campaign, say analysts. RFE/RL reports

When Aleksandr Markov heard the doorbell of his St Petersburg apartment earlier this year, he rushed to welcome his guest. But instead of the friend he had been expecting, Markov was surprised to see several strangers on his doorstep.

Then came the blow.

“I was hit in the eye,” he said. “I found myself in the staircase. Someone pushed me from behind and I fell over. They started kicking me.”

The assailants fled when Markov screamed for someone to call the police.

The incident is the latest in what appears to be a string of assaults and arson attacks on Russians who have openly criticised their government on social networking sites.

Markov is one of the administrators of an opposition group called Criminal Authorities on VKontakte, Russia’s largest social network. The group has about 14,000 members and openly denounces Kremlin policies, including those pertaining to Ukraine.

How Russia's independent media was dismantled piece by piece Read more

Another administrator of Criminal Authorities on VKontakte, Yegor Alekseyev, was assaulted in June.

“Since November, there has clearly been a deepening crackdown on what people are writing, especially on VKontakte,” said Andrei Soldatov, an expert on Russian security. “It’s obvious that VKontakte is under close scrutiny.”



In addition to the assault, Markov has also been harassed online. A VKontakte account recently created under the name Aleksandr Petrogradsky offers to send viewers detailed information about him.

Markov’s brother has also received a threatening message from an anonymous user.

“We have long talked about Aleksandr Markov, a former DJ at a gay club,” the message reads. “Sometimes he’s beaten up. When will normal guys finally see this ‘artwork’. I know three of them, but they are currently on an expedition. They said they will return and deprive Markov of something that will never grow back.”

Blacklist

Soldatov says online freedoms have been under threat in Russia since the adoption of tough legislation regulating the internet, dubbed by some the “blacklist law”, early in president Vladimir Putin’s third term as president in 2012. Although authorities insist that the legislation is aimed at combating child pornography and websites that promote drug use and teen suicides, critics say it is being used to enforce government censorship.

In December, a blogger was sentenced to five years in a Siberian jail after he criticiced Russia’s military intervention in Ukraine in videos posted VKontakte and YouTube. Vadim Tyumentsev was also barred from posting anything online after serving his sentence.

Rafis Kashapov, an activist from Tatarstan, was also jailed for three years in 2015 for denouncing Russia’s support of separatists in eastern Ukraine and its illegal annexation of Crimea in online posts.



In May Andrei Bubeyev was sentenced to two years and three months for two reposts critical of authorities – one about Crimea belonging in Ukraine and the other an image of a toothpaste tube with the words Squeeze Russia out of yourself.

Repressions for what people write on social networks are definitely intensifying Andrei Soldatov

Physical violence against internet users, however, is something new. Observers have suggested the assailants are either acting at someone else’s behest or are lone wolves emboldened by the repressive new legislation.

“For the first three years, the system was based on intimidation, on suspended sentences,” says Soldatov. “Since last November, there have been a series of real sentences, people are being sent to prison just for sharing images. So repressions for what people write on social networks are definitely intensifying.”

Alekseyev, who also works on Criminal Authorities, believes the attacks are being carefully coordinated.

He said two men attacked him from behind as he walked down a quiet street in St Petersburg. They beat him up for about five minutes, but did not steal anything. He was left with a broken nose, a fractured skull and concussion.

Alekseyev believes the attack was carefully planned by his assailants, who knew his schedule and had received special training.

Suspicious visit

A St Petersburg resident who regularly contributes to the group, Yulia received a suspicious visit in mid-April. Two men showed up at her front door, told her they were her new neighbours, and said something about a store that was going to open up in her building.

The pair struck her as strange, but she thought nothing of it until her car was torched overnight a few weeks later.

She shared her story on VKontakte and posted pictures of the two men. The friend whom Markov had been expecting on March 31 identified them as the same men he had seen leaving Markov’s building after the attack.

Yulia stresses that she has no connection to Markov and Alekseyev other than their involvement in the Criminal Authorities group.

“They weren’t on my friends list, we weren’t members of the same [online] groups,” she said. “We have completely different backgrounds with no links to each other.”

Shortly before her car was torched, Yulia also discovered that her name had been mentioned in several disparaging comments published on an unfamiliar VKontakte account.

The posts mostly criticised her opposition views. The account was registered under the name Aleksandr Aleksandrov and used a photograph of her husband as its avatar. An unknown user had posted several photographs of Yulia’s husband taken outside their home.

The account was deleted after Yulia filed a complaint with VKontakte.

While there is currently no evidence that the attacks are politically motivated, the list of people who have been landed in trouble after publishing posts critical of authorities is growing quickly.

In January, Danila Aleksandrov, an opposition activist, received a greeting on VKontakte from a user registered as Aleksandrov Danila-Abu-Ilyas.

The fake account contained a series of covert photos of Aleksandrov walking his dog. Nine days later he was assaulted in the street and beaten up. He had to be hospitalised for a week.

What spawned Russia's 'troll army'? Experts on the red web share their views Read more

Earlier this year student Ruslan Starostin posted an image poking fun at Putin on VKontakte. In April, his wife received a friend request from an unknown VKontakte member calling himself Yevgeny Krestovsky. The account initially used a picture of her and her husband as its profile photo.

The anonymous user shared Starostin’s original post accompanied by a threat. “You think you can freely take the piss, rally giggling morons around you, and get away with it?” the comment said.

Several hours later, Starostin’s car was torched.

The latest suspicious assault came on 12 June, when unidentified men attacked a VKontakte employee known for his occasional anti-government posts.

The attackers broke three of his fingers and called their victim a traitor, a Jew, and a member of the “fifth column” – a term frequently used by Russian state media to describe the opposition.

A version of this article first appeared on RFE/RL