Moscow, September 13 (DPRK ISG Information Bureau - RSTV)   

[ Soviet Peace Fund ]  [ telegram ]

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On September 9 at 7:00 a.m. a hostile group seized the building of the Soviet Peace Fund, which has historically been the heart of people’s diplomacy and the headquarters of organizations that form the International Union, including the Russian Society for Friendship and Cultural Cooperation with the DPRK.

The attackers used the "Z" chevron as an identification mark, and the employees of the Soviet Peace Fund were brutally beaten and thrown out into the street. The hospitalization of an employee of the Fund, an examination of the beatings inflicted, and a statement to the police did not even serve as grounds for obtaining an explanation.

Before the attack by the paramilitary "security" group, there were only four people in the building:

• As usual, a 72-year-old volunteer stood at the entrance. He was held in the building for more than four hours.
• The Administrator on Duty, who was hospitalized with multiple injuries (including a craniocerebral injury) and loss of consciousness.
• The Head of the Administration, who, despite the court decision to cancel the Order of illegal dismissal, was pushed out into the street.
• The Authorized Representative of the funds of Armenia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, who suffered injuries to the hip joint, knee, ankle, cervical vertebrae and carotid artery.

As of September 12, all programs of the Soviet Peace Fund are closed. Unknown persons have complete control over the building, including the office of Viktor Petrov (Deputy Chairman of the Coordination Committee and Director of the 1st Department of People's Diplomacy of the DPRK ISG). Not only the "Marble Hall" where the Foundation's management together with the DPRK Embassy held various solidarity events is being held, but also a significant part of the archival and historical documentation of our organization, official gifts from the Korean side, revolutionary works of President Kim Il Sung, Chairman Kim Jong Il and General Secretary Kim Jong Un, various books and other significant things.

The DPRK ISG believes that the attack on the building of the Soviet Peace Foundation is part of a hostile takeover and calls on all friends and allies to support the legitimate Board of the Foundation headed by Sergei Baburin in order to prevent the destruction of the oldest peacekeeping organization.

『September 9, Moscow. Today I tried to get to my workplace at the Soviet Peace Foundation twice, both times unsuccessfully. Many of our employees were unable to get to work. Dozens of people's workdays were disrupted. It turned out that the people headed by Sutormina did not simply seize the building at the end of the election night, did not barricade themselves there, but in a vandalistic manner welded and blocked all the doors in the old mansion of an architectural monument, removed the old decorative handles, welded the windows, and blocked the vents with screwdrivers. The Fund employee on duty, who was seriously injured in the raiders' attack, was diagnosed with a concussion and multiple bruises of the soft tissues of the head, torso and limbs in the Pirogov City Hospital, where he was taken.』

— Sergey Baburin (Chairman of the Board of the Soviet Peace Fund and Member of the Coordination Committee of the DPRK ISG).

『As a result of not only the illegal, unlawful, but also dangerous actions of the said group, hundreds of people in various regions of Russia and abroad (art and cultural figures, specialists, scientists, volunteers, philanthropists) were left without grounds for scientific and specialized activities, without the results of their work, without contributions, and Russian public activities and humanitarian mission were deprived of even such rare and few humanitarian ties with the former Soviet republics (Moldova, Estonia, Georgia), which were supported only by our events. The building of the Soviet Peace Fund has always belonged entirely to the associations, unions and activists of the approved programs, and was in their use.』

— Escamilla Vega Laura Luisovna (Head of the Legal Department of the Soviet Peace Fund, authorized representative of five foreign funds of the International Union).

『The actions of the enemies of the peacekeeping organization are dictated exclusively by the thirst for profit. They do not consider the interests of the Foundation, nor the state interests of Russia, nor even common sense. All they need is to get hold of a historical building in the center of Moscow, even if it means undermining the international prestige of our country.』

— Viktor Petrov (Director of the Soviet Peace Foundation's programs for cooperation with Korea, China and Vietnam).

『We will under no circumstances deal with impudent outlaws who, having seized a building two kilometers from the Kremlin, seriously expect that now everyone will come and bow to them.』

— Alexander Mostov (Chairman of the Coordination Committee of the DPRK ISG)