Belfast Telegraph: Violence and hatred in Russia's new skinhead playground

Fascism is vilified in Russia after the sacrifices the nation endured to defeat Nazi Germany. But a racist skinhead culture is on the rise - and it is becoming increasingly vicious Skinheads may be a British invention but when it comes to sheer numbers, levels of violence and hatred of foreigners a damning new report suggests Russia has become the bovver boys' blood-soaked new playground. It may be a country that vilifies fascism more than any other and arguably had to make the most appalling sacrifices to defeat Nazi Germany 60 years ago but this is where skinhead culture has taken hold like nowhere else. Driven by crushing poverty, a lingering sense of humiliation after the collapse of the Soviet Union and outrage over Chechen separatist terror attacks, Russia's skinheads are becoming increasingly organised, increasingly violent and increasingly numerous. A report claims Russia's youth is embracing the very ideology their grandparents fought against so implacably to the point where Russian skinheads, or britogolovy, now account for almost half the world's "skins". Adhering to a unique blend of neo-Nazi ideology and rabid Russian nationalism, Russian skinheads are among the most violent, and have staged a wave of savage attacks on non-Russians and children as young as five in the past year, leaving many of their bleeding victims to die slowly. Forty-four people were killed in racially motivated murders last year, more than double the previous year, human rights activists say, and in many cases the perpetrators were young, white, bomber jacket-clad skinheads shouting neo-Nazi or nationalist slogans. They rarely shoot their victims, preferring to stab them repeatedly or beat them to death with chains or knuckle-dusters. And the odds are always stacked in their favour because they hunt in packs of at least three and pick the most vulnerable targets. Their ranks seem only to swell, from about a dozen in the early 1990s to up to 60,000 today. The report, entitled How to quell the neo-Nazi setbacks in a country that defeated fascism, was produced by the Moscow Bureau for Human Rights and is among several recently that throw the spotlight on a dark underbelly of Russian society the authorities would have you believe barely exists. siehe dazu auch: Report Sounds the Alarm Over Rise of Neo-Nazism in Russia, Number of ethnic and nationalistic crimes grows fast in Russia. The number of crimes committed over national hatred doubled in 2004