The Rise of Neo Nazism in Russia

 

A court in Moscow has sentenced five members of a neo-Nazi gang to life in prison for the racially motivated murders of 27 people.

Several other members of the outlawed Nationalist Socialist Society were also found guilty – including one woman – and given jail terms of up to 23 years.

The gang targeted Muslims and dark-skinned migrants during 2007-8.

The defendants in the dock joked with each other, taunted the judge and attempted Nazi salutes in handcuffs.

As the verdict was read out, they shouted: “Our conscience is above your laws, we’ll be back”, Russia’s Interfax news agency reported.

The 18-month trial heard that the gang had hunted down people in Moscow who were or appeared to be from central and south-east Asia, Africa or the Caucasus region, and brutally attacked them.

Ringleader Lev Molotkov, who pleaded not guilty, was described by presiding judge Nikolai Tkachuk as “an extraordinary danger to Russian society”.BBC

 

A Russian court on Monday handed down sentences ranging from 10 years to life in prison to 12 members of the country’s most vicious neo-Nazi gang convicted of 27 hate killings, which included a videotaped decapitation of one of their own gang members and other crimes.

The Moscow City Court sentenced five members of the group, the National Socialist Society North, to life, giving another seven members between 10 and 23 years. One was handed an eight-year suspended sentence.

The defendants were mostly men in their 20s and one woman. Most of the gang members had pleaded partial guilt but requested leniency after their lawyers say they were coerced into committing the crimes.Huffington

 

Judge who targeted Russia’s neo-Nazis is found shot dead

Eduard Chuvashov refused state bodyguard despite death threats

 

 

A leading Russian judge who received death threats after handing out long prison sentences to nationalist and neo-Nazi groups was shot dead yesterday in Moscow.

Eduard Chuvashov was shot three times in the stairwell outside his second-floor apartment, just before 9am as he was leaving for work. Sources in Russian law-enforcement said that nationalist groups could have been behind the attack. Mr Chuvashov, 47, had handled several high-profile cases involving racist killings, and death threats were posted along with his photograph on extremist online forums.

In February, Mr Chuvashov presided over the trial of 12 members of an ultra-nationalist group called the “White Wolves” who were accused of a series of gruesome murders of migrant workers, mostly from Central Asia.

The victims had been bludgeoned to death or stabbed many times. The killings were recorded on mobile phones and posted online.

Mr Chuvashov found all of the gang members guilty and sentenced them to up to 23 years in prison. Last week, he jailed another three members of a skinhead group for racist murders.

“Revenge by nationalist groups is certainly one of the most likely reasons for his killing,” said Alexander Brod, director of the Moscow Bureau for Human Rights and a leading anti-racism campaigner. “In the past couple of years, judges and prosecutors have begun to crack down on nationalist crimes and take them seriously. It is possible that one of these groups hired a killer to scare others lawyers and judges who work on similar cases.”

Russian news agencies reported that Mr Chuvashov had been offered protection by Russian security services after receiving death threats, but he declined the offer of a bodyguard.The Independent

 

“”So, i’m sure some of you, if not most of you know that National Socialism/Neo-Nazism is on the rise across the world. No more is this more apparent than in the ex-Communist states, noteably – Russia. When I first heard about the rise of young National Socialists in Russia, I thought it to be a joke or at least not a serious problem. Turns out i’m wrong. Racial attacks and killings are taking place everyday in the streets of Moscow, St. Petersburg and other major cities. But…the government does nothing?

In a country so devastated by the Second World War, i’m confused as to why these violent young men are allowed to roam free, killing and maiming at will. Ex-President Vladimir Putin even said that Immigrants are needed to boost Russia’s economy and yet, the government will do nothing to protect them. many people don’t realise it (or are willing to admit it), but the situation is becoming critical. Much of the Russian police is corrupt by followers of Neo-Nazism therefore granting many Skinheads immunity from the law. Worse yet, Deputy of the Russian State Duma, Nikolai Kuryanovich says: “The Skinheads and the Neo-Nazi Slavonic Union are useful organizations, providing healthy reaction to a healthy organization”. Finally, a couple of years ago, a video began circulating on Russian Internet of Two Tajiks who have been captured by Neo-Nazis. One is slowly decapitated, while the other is shot in the back of the head. There are many more stories such as this, they are easy to find.

I realise that this is a Global issue, not something exclusive to Russia. Correct me if i’m wrong, but are Nazi insignia illegal in Germany? And why can’t this law exist throughout the world? It is a similar story to World War Two, people realise how wrong (Neo-) Nazism is but nobody is willing to do anything about it. But, the question is – are we willing to let it all happen again?“”

 

There is a circulating myth among Western media that Putin has been soft on nationalism and even promoted it. This myth is false. Sure, while it is true Putin came to power on the back of nationalistic feelings that were very popular in 1999/2000 Russia, which was a very different Russia economically and politically than Russia is today, Putin has, however, shown to be an anti-Russian over the years (especially, the past few years).

Under Putin, real political Nationalist parties like Rodina were barred from entering elections, even though they were expected to win over 20% of the vote. Political groups like RNU and Slavic Union, even the more Communist friendly National Bolshevik Front have been banned. Under his radical rule, anti-hate laws and anti-Russian laws have been enacted to privilege non-Russians.

The regime has been one of the leading regimes to launch a global anti-Nazi task force and use rhetoric against it’s neighbors who’ve expressed nationalism and independence. The Kremlin has supported and mainstreamed Chechen nationalist/Islamist dictator while degrading Russian nationalist to a subculture within the political culture.

The history of Russia under Putin for nationalist has been very similar to what other groups in Russia have faced: the political regime solidifies power while they slowly erode the power of others. The political left-wing in Russia which is usually targeted has not been the only target of the Kremlin. Yes, even nationalist which have remained silent and even supported some of the Kremlin in some case have been a target.

Despite the Kremlin and it’s leaders best attempts to keep at bay ethnic-Russians from gaining any real political power, the recent protest show that ethnic-Russian sentiment is strong and that the government is deftly afraid of Russians standing on their own two feet. The recent riots and protest and the arrest of thousands of ethnic-Russian (and non-Russian sympathizers) show that the fear and hatred in the Kremlin of Russians protesting for their civil and equal rights makes them nervous.

 

What many people remember as the atrocity of World War II is the Holocaust, the mass-murder of over 6 million Jews. But what most don’t realize is that Russians suffered more than three times that number of casualties at the hands of the Nazis. Why, then, has neo-Nazism becoming so popular in Russia today?
After 20 million people were slaughtered in the years of fighting against the Nazis, and the fervent anti-fascist sentiment that followed war, it’s hard to imagine that Russians could now succumb to the same ideology that killed so many of their relatives. But that’s the reality in Russia today. Although being a neo-Nazi in Russia is like an African American waving a Confederate flag, many Russians, even Russian Nationalists, have adopted the ideology that half a century ago, Hitler left their country absolutely devastated. But going against that logic, with survivors of the tragedy still alive and the others turning over in their graves, violent, neo-Nazi behavior has surged in Russia. Last year, two neo-nazis attacked and killed lawyer Stanislav Markelov and journalist Anastasia Baburova; Ilya Dzhaparidze, a promoter of the anti-fascist in football was murdered near his home. Unforatunately, these are just two examples of how neo-Nazism has taken roots in Russia.

So where has Russia gone wrong? How has Nazism, the weapon used to massacre and cause the suffering of so many Russians, transformed into a way of life for the new generation? The analysts have come up with two “explanations” to this alarming phenomenon: the crisis of Capitalism and the lack of a better political alternative.
Alfredo Bauer, an expert on neo-Nazism exiled in Argentina, claims that the neo-Nazi trend owes itself to the Capitalist crisis brought on by the fall of the Berlin Wall. The crisis, which has spread throughout many parts of Europe, is not limited to the economic level, as neo-Nazism can also be found in societies with high employment rates. Bauer also includes the emotional, psychological and cultural aspects of the problem. He says Europe is experiencing a serious identity crisis- increasing confrontation between the haves and the have-nots and boosting racial conflicts.

But the lack of a democratic history and the high social and economic instability that followed the end of the Soviet Union paved the way for neo-Nazi groups and laid the brunt of the crisis in Russia’s lap. The “Iron Curtain” may have fallen, but in its place surged corruption and social differences. Russian teens, feeling left out of the new economic system, have reacted by turning into aggressive social rejects that neither the government nor society are prepared to control.

The parents themselves don’t know how to adapt to the social and economic changes going on, let alone deal with their children’s problems. And when ex-activists of the youth organization Komsomol (remnant of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union) ditched the club for the business world and many of Russia’s young people were left without appealing options, they turned to neo-Nazism. Some political sectors have also been blamed for the rise in violent, xenophobic behavior. President Putin is accused of boosting Russian nationalism to divert attention away from problems like poverty, while at the same time fearing that the wave of neo-Nazi intolerance will take him down on its way up.

Whatever the reasons may be, the reality is that the current political and social environment in Russia has been ideal for the growth of neo-Nazism. Parties like opposition group “Rodina” (Motherland) have gotten control in the Russian legislature with the slogans like “Let’s Clear Our City of Trash” one of the party’s campaign ads referring both to the dirtied streets of Moscow as well as to darker-skinned Caucasian immigrants and in a broader sense, to all foreigners who have settled in Russia. While there as a lot of anti immigrant feeling in Europe what makes Russia different is that it is a country with a tiny amount of immigrants and a widespread dislike of them.

I’ll finish this post with a story to help illustrate my point. One night, while eating dinner with some French friends of ours who had been backpacking for a few months in Russia, they told us of something very disturbing. They said that although the Russians were very generous and allowed my friends to stay in their homes, on two occasions the topic of a simple family photo jolted the French couple into the harsh Russian reality. It turns out that my friend Phil’s brother-in-law is African, and that when the hosts asked to see pictures of my friends’ families, they were shocked to see a black man. On two separate occasions, the Russian hosts asked how my friends could allow such a dirty, uncivilized person into their family. This story may just be one couples´ unfortunate experience, but the truth is that many Russians have adopted a racist mentality without necessarily reaching the level of neo-Nazism. I guess that’s what happens when an institution like the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics is created and made up of people filled with hate and prejudices who don’t get along with each other. They take out their frustrations by lashing out at those different than them, the ethnic minorities, any chance they get. [source]

MOSCOW — Hundreds of neo-Nazis rallied in Moscow Saturday to protest the Kremlin’s policies in the violence-plagued Caucasus region and call on forceful expulsion of non-Slavic migrants from Russia.

About 300 protesters, including activists from banned or unregistered groups that preach white supremacy, waved red-and-white flags with German Nazi eagles and chanted “Hail Russia! Stop feeding the Caucasus!”

The predominantly Muslim, mountainous region hosts at least 100 ethnicities including Chechens, who have waged two separatist wars against Moscow after the 1991 Soviet collapse.

Analysts say the Chechen conflict, with atrocities and civilian slayings committed by both Russian forces and militant Islamists, has triggered the rise of xenophobia and neo-Nazism in Russia as well as growing resentment by Caucasus natives to ethnic Russians and Moscow’s rule.

After pacifying Chechnya, the Kremlin has spent billions of dollars on restoring the region and funding provincial governments that often include former warlords and jihadists, including the Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov, who has boasted of killing his first Russian soldier at age 15.

In recent years, Islamists and criminal groups have stepped up attacks on servicemen and officials in most of the Caucasus provinces and organized attacks on civilians in Moscow and central Russia.

On Friday, unidentified militants killed a police officer and wounded a soldier in the village of Chaumyan in the province of Dagestan that neighbours Chechnya, police spokesman Vyacheslav Gasanov said.[source]

 

Racially motivated attacks, often targeting people from Caucasus and ex-Soviet Central Asia, have risen in recent years, peaking in 2008, when 110 were killed and 487 wounded, independent human rights watchdog Sova said.

The group said ultranationalist thugs have recruited thousands of supporters on Internet forums and chat rooms.

About 70,000 neo-Nazis are active in Russia — compared with a just few thousand in the early 1990s, according to the Moscow Bureau for Human Rights.

 

Return of the Swastika?

Sectarianism continues to increase in Russia and surrounding countries (e.g. Ukraine. Armenia, Georgia). Experts say, in Russian alone, members of sectarian groups number over 700, 000. Sectarianism has grown rapidly since the collapse of the Soviet Union.

Experts believe many of Russia’s sects represent non-religious organisations. They say such sects have two aims – power and money. These sects are of a more social and political, rather than religious, nature.

A growing trend in Russia, in particular, is towards extreme radical right-wing ideals. There are over 150 registered neo-Nazi groups in Russia presently, many of them recognisable as skinheads. Apparently, given Russia’s size and population, this is a relatively small number. However, Galina Kozhevnikova, deputy head of an analytical research centre, suggests that while groups are small in number, ‘more than half of Russians support neo-Nazi ideas.’ While Internet editor, Viktor Tsvetkov, notes that poll results suggest that ‘every second Russian is a skinhead at heart.’

It appears that, across Europe in such countries as Germany, Sweden, France, Serbia, Austria and the Netherlands, the far right is also on the rise. Hong Kong based journalist, Ritt Goldstein, from Asian Times, goes as far as to assert that not since the 1930’s great depression, has there been such a rise in the far right in the West. It appears many people are growing increasingly frustrated with the apparent effects of ‘multiculturalism’. This is leading many European people to lean towards narrow minded simplistic solutions to solve the complex economic and ethnic tension issues. Neo- Nazi groups, or at least related ideas, thus become appealing to many.

The Russian government is aware of the growing sectarian situation and has sought to intervene. In September 2010 they introduced an experimental course for school curriculums in several Russian regions. The course educates students about ‘traditional faith’ to help prevent them from falling victim to extreme groups. The state is also establishing rehabilitation centres for sectarian victims. The Russian Orthodox Church is also trying to help people with sound instruction. This can all get rather complicated when the Russian Orthodox would like to see only one main form of Christian expression:- the Russian Orthodox Church. It generally regards many newer Protestant, and especially Pentecostal, churches as sects and sectarian, as well as the many other religious and non-religious sectarian groups.

After many decades of enforced atheism, Russians are now struggling with ignorance, gullibility and vulnerability to all sorts of claims and notions about God and religious faith.

 

And the other “cara de la moneda”

 

Since the “Neo Nazis” of Russia make the news every so often, I would like to briefly make a few comments about Armenian and Russian relations in the context of racist attacks against Armenians living in Russia. I initially did not want to discuss this topic at all because I saw it as unconnected to the primary intent of this blog. This is essentially a sociological problem in Russia that many non-Russian immigrants face and has no bearing on the geopolitical and/or geostrategic aspects of Russo-Armenian relations. The fact of the matter is that Russian “Neo-Nazis” or “skinheads” as they are at times called represent the Russian Federation just as much as the “KKK”, Neo-Nazis or “White Power” degenerates in America represent the United States of America. However, since this topic keeps popping up every time Armenian-Russian relations are discussed, I felt obligated to make a few comments about it.

Racism exists in many societies. More specifically, racism tends to exist especially within large nations that have a diverse demographic makeup and nations that are going through rough political and/or economic times. Even in the United States, there is a serious problem with racism: Neo-Nazis, KKK, White Supremacists, Hispanic racists, Mexican racists, Black racists, etc. However, one of the fundamental differences in this regard between the United States and the Russia Federation is that in the US the authorities are much more effective and much more efficient in their management of society. More importantly, the US has not had a serious socioeconomic breakdown the kind of which post-Soviet Russia has experienced for about a decade. In any given country where there is economic crisis and/or weakened central government, social order suffers and crime rates increase as a result. 

In hard socioeconomic times, natives in any given country tend persecute those who they ‘perceive’ to be outsiders taking advantage of their nation. What’s more, it’s no secret that since the Soviet collapse, Russia has had severe problems with all types of social disorders and criminal groups. Many of these criminal groups have been at times manipulated by foreign interests. I am glad that the authorities in Moscow have finally began to combat this serious problem, a problem that is also detrimental to Russia’s progress.

During the past several years, several dozen Armenians have been murdered in what appears to have been racially motivated killings. While it is common knowledge that Russians generally speaking tend to be a chauvinistic people, an aggressive people, what’s not clear, however, is who is committing the murders of Armenians in Russia and why. It is now becoming more and more obvious that a vast majority of the killings of Armenians in Russia may have been mob related. There is also the likelihood that at least in some cases there is also political motives behind the killings. After all, there are large numbers of Turkic peoples living within boundaries of the Russian Federation. There are also large numbers of Georgian, Jewish and Chechen crime rings. The aforementioned nationalities will always pose a danger to Armenians because they see Armenians as their competitors and/or their historic enemies.

I am not implying that the average Russian will have warm sentiments towards foreigners in Russia, especially Caucasians, whom they see as taking advantage of their nation. It is also well known that many Armenian immigrants in Russia bring shame upon the Armenian people, similar to how many Armenians in southern California bring shame upon the Armenian nation. However, unlike in the United States where the relative standard of living is high, the political climate remains stable and society is under tight control, the Russian Federation has been suffering from severe social malaise and economic depression for well over a decade. As a result of Russia’s sociopolitical instability and economic depression, Russians have naturally began to grow increasingly intolerant and in some cases aggressive towards non-ethnic Russians living amongst them.

I would like to point out a US-funded government study conducted in the mid-90s that revealed one out of six Russian adolescents at the time were mentally/emotionally disturbed. That is a staggering number. Those children, incidentally, are now young adults with mental problems. It is well known that the years following the collapse of the Soviet Union saw a drastic rise in violent crime, chronic corruption, unemployment, moral degradation, broken families and a lack of education. Today, there are perhaps millions of troubled and disgruntled young men and women roaming the streets of major cities in Russia. And these are in essence the vulnerable citizens of the country that are being manipulated to do the dirty work of special interests, be it political or criminal.

Broadly speaking, it is in all peoples psyche to be chauvinistic, it’s a human trait. Aren’t we Armenians chauvinistic in our own special way? Aren’t we Armenians smarter or more capable than non-Armenians – the “otars”? Don’t Armenians look down on Russian men as being drunkards? Don’t Armenian men look at Western women, specifically Russian women, as whores? And it’s not just us, don’t the English, French and the Spaniards boast about their former empires? Aren’t Germans and Japanese still arrogant? And how did the term the “ugly American” came into existence? If Russians are more high nosed than the average westerner it’s simply because for the past several centuries they have been a major military power, a major economic power, a major political power and a major cultural power. And unlike many of the other major powers around them, they continue to be one today. Also, Russians seem to have had enough of foreigners meddling into their businesses.

Nonetheless, the hard reality today is that certain street elements in Russia are being used towards sinister purposes by special interest groups and government agencies. This situation will not change for some time. Thus, we Armenians have to work with what we have. Armenians in Russia, our largest diasporan community numbering around 2 million, need to be more proactive in fostering better relations with their Russian neighbors. Armenian migrant workers in Russia need to have more respect towards their host nation and its laws. To remedy these problems, Armenian community groups need to be assembled. Cultural awareness programs like the ones recently commissioned by the authorities in Moscow need to increase in number and scope. Individual Armenians need to work on this, Armenian businessmen need to work on this, Armenian officials need to work on this, our Church leadership needs to work on this.[source]