Now that our Borotba comrades Victor, Maria, Alexey and Maxim are safely back in Crimea and have released a statement about their detention in Donetsk, I want to thank everyone who assisted in the struggle to win their release by writing, calling, posting on the web and social media, as well as those on the ground in Donetsk and Simferopol. Thanks go to Panagiotis, David, Bridget and a comrade in Italy who prefers to stay anonymous, who helped with the international appeal from solidarity groups initiated by the International Action Center, nahiasanzo at Slavyangrad.ES who translated it into Spanish and wrote an excellent accompanying article, and Krasnoe.TV which helped circulate it to Russian-speaking audiences. Paul and Janet made sure our U.S.-based sites were up-to-date through the crisis. Its not clear if our statement had an impact on hastening the comrades release, and we will probably never know. But it definitely DID help inform and covey the gravity of the situation to the international anti-imperialist and anti-fascist movement. Thank you to Cynthia McKinney, Joe Lombardo and all the solidarity groups that signed on. Important statements and inquiries were made by influential figures like Graham Phillips, Colonel Cassad/Boris Rozhin, and Maryana Naumova which greatly aided the effort. Finally, a special thank you to comrades Svetlana, Naya, Dmytriy, Ivan, Darya who kept us informed and answered our questions every day, even when they were under great stress themselves; Denis, Andriy, Maria, Alexander, Maria who kept Borotbas presence active on social media as well as on the ground; and of course all the comrades and friends unknown to me who contributed. I apologize if I left anyone out!
Posted on: Tue, 06 Jan 2015 14:37:05 +0000