Union of Councils for Soviet Jews: Moscow Newspaper Reports Antisemitic Literature Widely Available in the Capital

Antisemitic literature, neo-Nazi music and DVDs promoting Nazi ideology are widely available in Moscow, according to a January 17, 2006 article in the local paper Vechernyaya Moskva. The author of the article entitled “In Moscow It’s Easy to Buy Even ‘Mein Kampf’” begins by asserting that while it is not yet clear if Aleksandr Koptsev—the skinhead who attacked worshippers in a city synagogue last week—was “zombified” by extremist literature, there is no question of where he could have obtained such literature. “In our capital, that is not a problem,” the correspondent writes, despite laws banning the incitement of ethnic hatred and the publication of extremist literature. On Revolution Square, the reporter finds books titled “The Essence of Zionism”, “The Protocols of the Red Elders” and “The ABC of the Russian Nationalist” by the founder of the neo-Nazi Russian National Unity movement, Aleksandr Barkashov.