Moscow riots expose racism at the heart of Russian football

[pampango]

Links between neo-Nazis and fans are growing as the country gears up for the 2018 World Cup

The shooting of Yegor Sviridov on 6 December has sparked the worst race riots Moscow has seen since the fall of the Soviet Union. The killing and beating of immigrants has increased, racist and anti-Semitic graffiti has proliferated, and the atmosphere is tense.

For the past week, groups of roaming youth have taken to the streets daily, shouting "Russia for Russians! Moscow for Muscovites!" The youths manning the shop at Fratria insist they are not involved. "We only support legal, peaceful forms of protest," says Lena Sekhina, the club's press secretary.

Russia has a growing racism problem, with nationalist feelings increasingly stoked by the government since the collapse of the Soviet Union left an ideological vacuum. Yet many are beginning to wonder why tensions have finally boiled over. There are the conspiracy theories that say the unrest was stoked by the government of Vladimir Putin to prove the need for his authoritarian rule.

"I have always been a patriot," said Valyaev, a stocky 23-year-old who also helps organise the annual neo-Nazi rally in Moscow. "We think the interests of the race should be above the interests of the government – the government must work for the race. To stop this wave now, people must see that their protests have been heard."