The Voina Group: “Pyotr Verzilov is provoker, who pass himselve off as the Voina Group”

Not many people understand the ideological reasons why Pyotr Verzilov call himselve the Voina Group although he have nothing to do with the authors of the “Dick captured by KGB” and “Palace Revolution” actions – namely, Oleg Vorotnikov, Leonid Nikolayev, Natalia Sokol and Alexei Plutser-Sarno. That’s why Moscow-based culture expert Vadim Rudnev decided to figure this out.

Vadim Rudnev: What’s the ideological cause of this discrepancy in the Voina Group. Why are the authors of the “Dick captured by KGB!” and “Palace Revolution” actions, Vorotnikov, Nikolayev, Sokol and Plutser-Sarno, trying to dissociate themselves from the imitators Pyotr Verzilov?

Natalia Sokol: It’s not just an ideological difference of views that we have with them. Those provokers and betrayers were expelled from the group. In 2009 soon after they were drummed out of the group they occupied themselves with plagiarism and fraud.

Vadim Rudnev: What was his role in the group?

Alexei Plutser-Sarno: In 2008-2009 Pyotr was ordinary “walking man” in the actions of Oleg Vorotnikov and Natalia Sokol. In my presence they didn’t suggest a single idea for an action. He never did creative work. He was occupied with self-promotion.

Vadim Rudnev: Do you have a concrete example?

Alexei Plutser-Sarno: Let’s take a look at how one of the Voina actions, say Decembrists Commemoration, was planned. Brainstorm started with Natalia’s idea to stage something horrifying with a lethal outcome in the end. Oleg suggested the whole group to hang themselves in public.

Oleg Vorotnikov: Plut <Alexei Plutser-Sarno’s nickname> said then that the effect would be more dramatic if we’d be hangmen – not “suicide” victims. Koza (Natalia’s nickname) and I agreed. Plut told us that it would be great to dedicate this action to Decembrists and suggested a slogan “No one gives a fuck about Pestel!”
Yana Sarna: Pyotr Verzilov didn’t participate in this creative work. As usual he came to the action to show off in front of the photo cameras. As usual he drew supermarket security by his silly behavior and nearly ruined the action.
Oleg Vorotnikov: Nady Tolokonnikova was told to go up the ladder, attach a loop around the neck of one of the “victims”. Well, she went up the ladder all right, but she completely forgot about the loop. That’s why one part of the photo shoot was failed. Usually we tried not to give her two tasks at a time, but that time we hoped that she could handle it. Apart from it, all she could do was marching in front of the cameras with a “revolutionist-like” face.

Yana Sarna: After the action in various interviews Pyotr call himselve the authors of this action, as well as leader and ideologist of the group. He always plagiarize and take the credit for other people’s works. But you know an apprentice can’t take credit for his teacher’s masterpieces even though he helped him to mix colours and handled him brushes.

Natalia Sokol: Four activists were arrested within this action. Plut and Vor <Oleg Vorotnikov’s nickname> went to liberate them from the police office in the supermarket. Among them there were two photographers. Plut secretly managed to take away all the memory cards with photo documentalization.

Alexei Plutser-Sarno: Pyotr and Nady disappeared from the place immediately. They didn’t help anyone.

Vadim Rudnev: What was the final reason of Pyotr’s expulsion from the group?

Alexei Plutser-Sarno: In Kiev Pyotr was going to make an action together with an activist Alexander Volodarsky. As the action started he left him in the hands of the local cops and ran to give interviews to mass media.

Oleg Vorotnikov: Pyotr ratted out Volodarsky to the cops and informed us about it with joy and satisfaction. He tried to convince Koza and me that it’d be a good PR move for the Voina Group. He is so immoral that he didn’t even understand why we were so outraged by his words. He said to us: “Are you insane! It’s such a good opportunity and an incredible PR move for us. I’ve already given a dozen of interviews!”. As a result Alexander spent two months in pre-trail detention, afterwards he got 1 year in a labour camp. This incident led to their expulsion from the group. This decision was carried unanimously at the meeting of the Voina Group’s leaders on December 20, 2009 (http://plucer.livejournal.com/229596.html).

Natalia Sokol: Pyotr not just ratted out Alexander, afterwards he also stole his personal belongings – laptop, money etc.

Oleg Vorotnikov: Pyotr even suggested to share the money with other activists, assuming it’s normal to do so.

Leonid Nikolayev: To prevent the spread of information on his expulsion, Pyotr planted a lie about “a split in the group” and “a Moscow fraction”, which never existed.

Yana Sarna: The lie about “Moscow fraction” sounds ridiculous, as Tolokonnikova is from Norilsk and Verzilov is a Canadian citizen. While Plutser-Sarno, Nikolayev, Curpen and some others were born and have lived their entire lives in Moscow. Vorotnikov and Sokol have lived in Moscow for 16 years. So what we have is Verzilov and Tolokonnikova, provokers and plagiarists, and the Voina Group – Oleg Vorotnikov, Leonid Nikolayev, Natalia Sokol, Kasper, Jenny Curpen, Alexei Plutser-Sarno.

Leonid Nikolayev: In 2010 Pyotr kept on giving interviews about the actions, in which he never participated and which was held by Vor, Koza and me, - namely Dick captured by KGB, Palace Revolution, Crazy Lenya is our President and others. Despite not having been involved in them in any way, Pyotr claimed authorship in an interview to REN TV.

Oleg Vorotnikov: In this video as a proof of being a Voina leader , Verzilov shows our banners and other stuff, which he stole from Voina secret storage. Earlier he denied the fact he committed the burglary.

Leonid Nikolayev: In summer 2010, when Pyotr was already expelled, he called me and asked “for old time’s sake” to inform him about new actions so he could give interviews on our behalf. Unprincipled man promised me benefits in return. Now Pyotr travels all over Europe with the works by Oleg, Natalia, Alexei and shows them in galleries, claiming that he is the group’s leader. For example, now he is exhibiting Oleg and Natalia’s work of authorship – “All cops are bastards: Punk-concert in the courtroom” in Sweden. Neither Pyotr, nor Nady thought up that action. They just were present in the courtroom along with many other activists. There are three creative authors and ideologist in the group, who are responsible for all the old actions – Oleg Vorotnikov, Natalia Sokol and Alexei Plutser-Sarno, group’s media artist.

Vadim Rudnev: What happened to the group’s archive?

Oleg Vorotnikov: In May 2010 Pyotr Verzilov broke into our storage and stole the whole Voina archive: banners, my personal library, original video footage of the actions, disks with various info, our music library, equipment, including amplifiers, loud speakers, DVD-players, projectors etc. They stole my desk top with all the info on Voina. They denied the fact of burglary, but a bit later their friend Katya Samutsevich asked us to take some of the stolen stuff from her balcony – things that Pyotr left there as useless.

Natalia Sokol: I caught Peter once when he was downloading all the data, including Voina photo archive from my laptop. He didn’t return anything and insisted he didn’t do anything. Later I realized that his theft was much more extensive than I thought before. For example, he also got all my usernames and passwords to various websites. He changed passwords to several Flickr accounts, where to I uploaded photos of Voina actions. In happened in January 2009. Now I don’t have any access to them.

Alexei Plutser-Sarno: Peter stole the idea of the “Cockroach court” action from Oleg. The idea of using insects, such as cockroaches or bees, was discussed at the group meeting in 2009, when Peter was still in the group. At the “Cockroach court” action Peter didn’t manage to get the cockroaches inside the courtroom. But he lied about it to journalists. You won’t be able to find any pics or video of this co-called action as they don’t exist – cockroaches were confiscated by the court security at the entrance.

Natalia Sokol: Pyotr tryed to compensate this total failure by his usual clownery, posing and lying to the cameras in front of the court.

Oleg Vorotnikov: There is only one glamorous pic of this action - naked Nady lying with cockroached on her breast (http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4118/4793202948_43ba720c98_b.jpg). That’s not Voina style. That’s a disgrace. Pyotr simulates protest and counts on gutter press.

Alexei Plutser-Sarno: Our slogan “Anyone can make actions!” is still alive. But if Oleg, Natalia and Leonid make new risky actions, Peter and Nady only use this slogan as a cover to steal our ideas and make feeble copycat actions.

Leonid Nikolayev: When they try to do their own actions it turns out to be a complete disaster. Take for instance, their latest shallow action in which they hugged cops and fed them with chicken. Previously they once again discredited Voina’s name by frenching young female police school students in the Moscow metro.

Alexei Plutser-Sarno: Their actions are a mere clownery that has nothing to do with heroic art of the Voina Group.

Oleg Vorotnikov: We provoke the authorities. Pyotr is occupied with provocations against Voina. When Volodarsky was taken to the police, he called Pyotr three times to warn that cops were heading to the flat where Pyotr, Nady, Koza and I stayed. Pyotr packed his belongings very quickly and told us he was going “for a walk”. He didn’t give us any hint at what was going on. A bit later we saw the cops from the window coming for us. We managed to escape, but we had to leave all our stuff there.

Natalia Sokol: Pyotr tried to rat the Voina Group to the police many times. When asked to turn off his cell at the group meetings, he never did it as he knew his phone was tapped. It was an absolutely deliberate act. Other activists not only turned their phones off, but they also took out batteries.

Oleg Vorotnikov: But the most hideous of his provocations was one when he filmed anarchists’ faces during the well-known Khimki forest rally. He afterwards uploaded this video to the Internet and credited it to the Voina Group (http://news.nswap.info/?p=36820&cp). This aroused honest anarchists’ hatred towards our group. You see Pyotr introduced himself to them as a Voina activist and wormed himself into their confidence. Anarchists believed his words that he would never publish their faces. That’s why they didn’t hide their faces from him.

Natalia Sokol: He set up a lot of people, even journalists. Peter justified his title of provoker.

Leonid Nikolayev: Pyotr is using his fake Twitter account (http://twitter.com/gruppa_voina) to publish statements on behalf of the group. One of those statements appeared to be a provocation aimed at initializing a new case against the Voina Group. The tweet, which calls for Putin’s assassination, was posted before the prime minister’s visit to Higher School of Economics (http://free-voina.org/post/2608378114). Pyotr chose to post this tweet on behalf of Voina despite knowing that Twitter accounts and blogs are being monitored by the police. At that time Oleg and I were kept in pre-trail detention. This tweet could become a reason for the police to charge both of us under article 277 of the criminal code (which implies a life-term in prison).

Natalia Sokol: When Oleg and Lenya were arrested, Pyotr rushed to give interviews in which he misinformed everyone about their location. He said they were kept in the Kresty prison. This provocation led to the dramatic consequences – first 10 days all the food, letters, clothes etc, sent by Voina supporters, didn’t reach our guys. The lawyers were also misled by this lie.

Leonid Nikolayev: Pyotr Verzilov, who claim to be Voina leader, didn’t support or help us while we were in prison. He never sent us a single food parcel, never wrote us a single letter, we got nothing from him. At that time Pyotr Verzilov had the nerve to lie in mass media about his generous help to us. To help a prisoner you don’t need to have anything but a goodwill. This is exactly what Verzilov is lacking.

Oleg Vorotnikov: At the same time Verzilov blacked other activists, who really helped us, while we were in jail. While Plutser-Sarno launched a campaign in mass media in our support, helped to organize food parcels – he transferred an honorarium for his new book to Lyubka, who was buying food for us, Peter in his blog wrote fantastic cynic lies about him.

Alexei Plutser-Sarno: Verzilov maintain the LiveJournal account http://wisegizmo.livejournal.com which has been used by him to discredit the group by publishing fake news about Voina actions that never happened and to fling mud at real activists.

Oleg Vorotnikov: Verzilov is a liar, kleptomaniac, police provoker and dexterous deceiver.

The interview was prepared by Vadim Rudnev, Psy.D., psychotherapist, author of 18 books.
Источник - http://en.free-voina.org/post/11432689542