NeoNazi weed roots well in Russia, as it seems. In memory of an eco activist killed in Siberia.

[demoleft]

Every now and then they're back. With their sticks, dark clothes resembling their miserable minds and lives, metal pipes in their fists.
Every now and then they strike. In Italy (where a group of leftist people were beaten in a park after a concert) some weeks ago, now and again in Russia.

"Attack on nuclear demonstrators in Russia leaves 1 dead", was the International Herald Tribune title some days ago.

"Witnesses say the attackers shouted nationalist slogans as they rampaged through the forest tent camp near the city of Angarsk, about 4,200 kilometers (2,600 miles) east of Moscow. But police rejected suggestions that extremist groups had masterminded the attack."

Yes, just hooliganism and robbery. Just boys with nothing else to do.

Different opinion from one of the Activists, Andrei Kravchuk, who was there.
"'They shouted nationalist slogans, I don't know why — this is an environmental camp,' he said."

(link to IHT source for the previous quot. http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/07/21/europe/EU-GEN-Russia-Demonstrator-Killed.php )

"Russian environmentalist beaten to death" titled the Sydney Morning Herald on July 21, 2007.
"Russian media reported up to 15 people shouting fascist slogans attacked the environmentalists".
(Here's the link: http://www.smh.com.au/news/World/Russian-environmentalist-beaten-to-death/2007/07/21/1184560110166.html)

And BBC, too, talks of reports of "'skinheads' wearing dark clothes", here http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/6912006.stm

Now, it is possible that neo-nazi extremists - at least the organized ones - do not have anything to do with this. They prefer beating for ethnic and gender reasons. And environmentalists never seemed to be their target.
Perhaps it was just staged - dark clothes and all, to let blame fall on them. But it seems clear it was organized. And one human being died.

It's possible. Then who organized this?

The incident makes a pair with the Gay Pride beating in Moscow.

From The Guardian:
"A group of gay rights activists came under attack from neo-Nazi thugs when they tried to present a petition asking Moscow's mayor, Yuri Luzhkov, to lift a ban on a Gay Pride parade. He has previously dubbed gay rallies "satanic". Witnesses said riot police watched as far-right skinheads chanting "death to homosexuals" beat up several activists."

"The police failed to arrest the skinheads but detained several of the Europeans - including the German MP Volker Beck, a member of the Green party, and the radical Italian MEP Marco Capatto" (my bold), who asked the Policemen "why don't you protect us?"
It was reported last 28 May 2007. Here's the link: http://www.guardian.co.uk/russia/article/0,,2089413,00.html

I myself watched on the Italian News a priest from the orthodox Church blessing the skinheads on the street during the attack.

Well, all in all I made myself an opinion. The ugly weed of Nazis seems to root well in Russia. And to grow even better.
Someone, there, may find it suitable. We've already seen this happen in Italy during the 60's and the 70's: "strategy of the tension", if it can be rightly translated. A tension with only two who gain from it: the government and the establishment.

Congratulations. And my sorrow for the activist killed in Siberia.
Apparently, aged 20.

[LeftishBrit]

1. This is frightening.

Far-right groups are definitely a problem in Russia.

I remember the attack on the gay rights activists.

Also racism, anti-semitism, etc.

Best thoughts to the family of the young man who was murdered.

[demoleft]

4. "The alarming spread of fascism in Putin’s Russia", New Statesman, yesterday

By Gavin Knight, here's the link to the article: http://www.newstatesman.com/200707240002

"Soviet-style propaganda and a personality cult for Putin are only two of the signs that Russia is edging towards fascism"

Does he go too far in his opinion? I don't know, but many signs lead that direction.

[entanglement]

2. Russian neo-Nazis have been beating up and murdering racial minorities and gays with impunity

So it doesn't surprise me at all.

[demoleft]

3. A beautiful opinion from Moskow: the youth's amnesia.

"Neo-Nazism is becoming increasingly popular in Russia, a land soaked with the blood of soldiers who died fighting its original version. The Interior Ministry says that 150 extremist youth organizations are operating in the country, whereas human rights activists believe their number is even greater."

This is by political commentator Maxim Krans, RIA Novosti, and dates back to June 2007. Here's the link: http://en.rian.ru/analysis/20070621/67611589.html

"Worst of all, young people are beginning to think differently about the heroic feat of our forefathers and the evil they fought. According to the Public Opinion Foundation, 15% of young people believe that Nazism as a system of views has some positive aspects."

Amnesia. And disregard for the national heroes who rejected the Nazis during the 2nd W.W.

Apparently, extremists have killed 32 people and injured 245 more in January-May 2007 (Sova Information-Analytical Center).

Terrible figures.
A change in the Criminal Code is surely necessary. These crimes are different from common crimes and are aggravated from xenophobia and hatred.