European Forum

Russian court bans neo-Nazi party

Yesterday (28 April) the Moscow City Court banned one of Russia's largest ultra-nationalist groups for the promotion of neo-Nazi ideology. The Slavic Union, whose Russian acronym SS intentionally mimicked that used by the Nazis' infamous paramilitary, was declared "extremist," the court said in a statement. For the ban of the group, the court made use of a law introduced under former president Vladimir Putin, against extremism. According to activists, the law enables Kremlin to silence opponents of the regime.

Leader warns for hit back
The leader of the banned group, Dmitry Demushkin, said it has tried to promote its far-right agenda legally, and warned that the ban will enrage and embolden Russia's most radical ultranationalists. "They will burn cars, blow up power stations, kill officials and commit other resonant crimes," Demushkin told reporters. "All this will be the result of stupid government policies to eliminate legal nationalism."

Recently, four former Slavic Union activists were sentenced to life in prison for a 2006 explosion targeting non-Slavic traders at a Moscow market that killed 14, including two children, and wounded dozens.

The ban is part of a Kremlin crackdown on far-right groups that intensified after the January 2009 murder of lawyer Stanislav Markelov and journalist Anastasiya Baburova. Two activists of another ultra-nationalist organisation, Russian Image, were charged with the murder. Earlier this year, judge Eduard Tsuvasyov was shot in Moscow several months after handing down long prison sentences to members of another white supremacy group, the White Wolves, for assaulting and killing non-Slavs.

Surge in ultranationalism
Russia's ultranationalist movement is so deeply embedded in the country's culture that militant groups have sprouted up around Russia to fight against it. Anti-racist groups regularly spearhead attacks on ultranationalists, sparking revenge assaults in an intensifying clash of ideologies. In November 2009, the leader of one such group, Ivan Khutorskoy - also known by the nickname Bonebreaker - was shot to death on Moscow's outskirts.

Neo-Nazi and other ultranationalist groups grew rapidly in Russia after the 1991 Soviet collapse. The arrival of migrant workers and two wars with Chechen separatists triggered xenophobia and a surge in hate crimes. Racially motivated attacks, often targeting people from Caucasus and Central Asia, peaked in 2008, when 110 were killed and 487 wounded, NGO Sova, said. The Moscow Bureau for Human Rights estimated that some 70,000 neo-Nazis were active in Russia – compared with a just few thousand in the early 1990s. The Slavic Union, active since 1999, claims to have enlisted thousands of them.

Sova also reported, however, that since last year racial violence has decreased. In 2009, 70 people were killed because of their origin, mostly via brutal violence, while in the previous year this number was 109. According to Galina Kozyevnikova of Sova, this is partly due to active suppression by the authorities. But according to her, radical nationalists have moved their focus on familiar ‘enemies’ of the movement, such as lawyer Markelov and judge Tsuvasyov.

Sources: The News Tribune; Volkskrant (Dutch)