Kremlin Must Respond to Ugly Nationalism - The St. Petersburg Times

This week a group of State Duma deputies have made it again clear that the lower chamber of parliament is aping the Nazi brownshirts and the Bolsheviks' red nationalism. Twenty lawmakers belonging to the Rodina, Communist and Liberal Democratic factions have sent a request to the Prosecutor General's Office demanding that all Jewish religious organizations be banned from operating in Russia, saying "the Jewish religion is anti-Christian, inhumane, and involves ritual killings." Surprisingly enough, this letter was filed by lawmakers in response to a series of lawsuits and court cases initiated by the prosecutor's office in relation to extremist organizations and publications that allegedly broke the law by promoting national hatred. (...) Extremist movements have got completely out of hand in Russia in the five years since Putin came to power. This has resulted in the election of an extremely nationalistic Duma and in the widespread popularity of skinhead movements. One result of this is a constant growth in hate crimes against non-Russians, including murders. There are about 50,000 skinheads in Russia, compared to about 70,000 in the rest of the world, including Europe, the United States and other countries, according to statistics presented Friday in a report by the International Bureau for Human Rights in Moscow.