Instructions for provocateurs

St. Petersburg December 12th 2011

A provocateur in this context is a person who appears to be a part of a protest, but is in fact covertly trying to sabotage it. He is employed by the police.

The below article has been copied off the web page of the magazine/newspaper Независимая (independent) газета. According to the paper, the provocateurs have been given instructions on how to operate during the protests. Following is a list of some of the instructions [with commentary in brackets].

The document contains detailed instructions on what to do in different situations.

It is of great importance that provocateurs manage to lead the protesters into the back streets. The goal is to bring the rally to a halt so that the people who are carrying plaques (“Down with the thieves and scoundrels of the Party”, “No foul play”, “Off with Putin”) can be “extracted” from the crowd. [The meaning of the term “to extract” is ambiguous here. It could be interpreted to mean getting rid of them, one way or another.] Another goal is to try to prevent the people from reaching the actual rally site.

Provocateurs must frequently call the offices of the opposition party while posing as a representative or a member of the opposition. The goal is to instigate fights and arguments. The most active and vocal members must be tipped off to the police.

According to one instructional, fights should be provoked between members of the opposition and the police. When OMON shows up, it's time for the provocateur to exit the scene. The necessary [the most active?] groups of activists must be crowded into a spot where it is easy to:
shoot them with rubber bullets
shoot them with water cannons
hit them with batons
throw tear gas grenades at them.
[Exiting = good advice, would suck to get hit with a rubber bullet due to miscommunication.]

Fulfill our demands NOW! Soon it will be too late!

Provocateurs must do everything in their power to ensure that the protest is ruined. They must destroy all demonstration material (placards, banners, leaflets) that they can, hand out fake booklets [say what?] and use Photoshop [only the best in photo manipulation/sabotage is good enough!] to edit pictures of the protests. [What does this mean in practice? Removing people from the image to make it appear that there were fewer participants?]

Provocateurs must inform the police of the most active participants and report everything they hear to the police. To neutralize the apprehended persons, they may be given harmless laxatives or heavy sedatives. [This I don't understand. If “apprehended persons” refers to the people that are being held captive, then what good does it do to make them shit their pants? The sedatives I could somehow understand. Are handcuffs really not enough to restrain them?]

With reporters you must act as follows. During the apprehension process, you must prevent reporters from leaving the scene [to make it easier to catch them]. Same goes for people who could have received films, cameras and memory cards from the reporters.

A couple of notes regarding the article. My translation is not perfect, and the article is probably a hastily written summary of a real set of provocateur instructions. Therefore it may appear unclear and vague. I haven't really taken part in the protests and rallies, so I can't say if there is any truth to these allegations. Maybe somebody with some experience in the matter could shed some light on this? Could it be possible that the “instructional” is just disinformation propagated by the opposition?

Army - also people ! That you can not buy!