Russian Neo Nazis step up attacks

Interesting article on the grim world of Russian Neo-Nazis who besides the obvious racial and homophobic targets pick out subcultures for violence too as we have seen before:

Neo-Nazis ever more active, society stays passive - analysts
ИТАР-ТАСС - ИТАР-ТАСС (подписка) - Apr 1, 2009

Last year was one of the most eventful ones in terms of the manifestations of radical nationalism and resistance to it by the state and society, SOVA said in its report. The number of victims of racism and xenophobia-fuelled violence last year totaled at least 525, of whom 97 died. (In contrast to this in 2007 85 were killed and 605 others injured).

In all, 2008 racist and neo-Nazi attacks were registered in 44 regions of Russia, but most of them were in Moscow and St. Petersburg, as before.

The main victims of xenophobic aggression were Central Asia and Caucasus-born nationals. However, not a single individual of non-Slavic appearance is secure from racists' attacks. The same applies to the representatives of left-wing youth movements and subcultures alternative to the neo-Nazis (the Punks, the Emos and the Goths), whom the neo-Nazis regard as "traitors of the white race and its ideas."

The neo-Nazis' terrorist practices have been expanding. Last year saw at least ten explosions or attempts to blow up makeshift bombs in Moscow and the Moscow Region, in which neo-Nazis are suspected to have been involved.

Neo Nazis in Israel target goths alongside other minorities

Neo-Nazis are never that clever but the very idea of Jewish Neo-Nazis seems particularly odd. They obviously come from a Russian background from the names and as reported previously on this blog Russian neo-nazis have ben known to attack subcultures alongside their usual other targets

Details of the Nazi gang were first published in September 2007, when police arrested eight youths, aged 16 to 21, who sadistically targeted and attacked drug abusers, homosexuals, foreign workers, religious Jews and youths with a "Goth" appearance.

2 youths convicted of Nazi affiliation
Ynetnews, Israel 5 May 2008

Interesting article on goth in Israel here:
Goth in the First Modern Jewish City
Ha'aretz, Israel - 5 May 2008

Another punk killed in Russia

Neo-Nazi attacks in Russia claimed another victim. We reported on the attempted bombing/ attacks by Russian Neo Nazis earlier. This is about the fourth punk/SHARP killed by neo-nazis in Russia.

Teenager Stabbed to Death in Gang Attack
The Moscow Times

A teenager has been stabbed to death in an attack possibly organized by Spartak Moscow football fans on the Internet.

The 16-year-old boy died in a "mass brawl" near the Kitai-Gorod metro station on Sunday evening, a spokesman for the Investigative Committee said Monday.

"A murder case has been opened, but no further details can be given as the case is ongoing," said the spokesman, speaking on customary condition of anonymity.

The spokesman refused to identify the teenager.

News reports identified the victim as Alexei Krylov and said he and the attackers belonged to rival skinhead groups.

Novaya Gazeta, citing an unidentified law enforcement official, reported that 15 skinheads who support xenophobic violence attacked Krylov and several of his friends, who belong to SHARP, or Skinheads Against Racial Prejudice.

Krylov, who died of multiple stab wounds at the scene, had attended a punk concert with his friends at the nearby Art Garbage club. He lived in the town of Noginsk near Moscow, the newspaper said.

Visitors to the http://fanat1k.ru web site, run by Spartak fans who support xenophobic violence, apparently planned the attack late last week.

While the entries on the web site's forums had been deleted Monday, versions of the pages cached by web pages remained viewable.

"A couple of words of advice to those planning to hang around Kitai-Gorod on Sunday," began one entry, posted by the user Perovsky, who is listed on the web site as an administrator.

"Why don't a couple of us go down there and check out the vicinity of the club. Dress like a regular person ... but don't go too close," the posting said. "On Sunday this thread will be deleted."

Another user asked whether there would be metal detectors at the club's entrance.

"If there are, then the SHARPs will get it outside. If not, then we will go in ourselves," said a third user, who called himself Slavka 'Oi!

Web site administrators did not reply to an e-mailed request for comment.

In unrelated Spartak violence, around 200 fans were detained after the club's Russian Premier League opener against Zenit St. Petersburg last weekend.

Police said the fans were held for petty crimes and no serious attacks were reported.

Violence is common among Russian football fans, and Spartak fans -- known as Gladiators -- have been implicated in other xenophobic attacks in recent years.

In October, teenage Spartak fans were detained after a wave of knife and other attacks left several dark-skinned foreigners dead.

In an apparently unconnected attack, a Nigerian student was in the hospital with a concussion on Monday after being attacked by four drunken factory workers near the Prazhskaya metro station, Itar-Tass reported.

The student, from Peoples' Friendship University, was not identified.

Neo-Fascists Attacked Teenagers in Moscow
March 17th

Armed by knives, a group of roughly 15 attacked seven teenagers in downtown Moscow Sunday; the young people were going to the punk concert at Art Garbage Club, RBC reported. One of teenagers died of the knife wound.
The accident happened at 6:34 p.m., near 6 Maroseika St., Moscow. The called patrol officers found a 16-year boy with a penetrating wound in the chest and lots of other cut wounds. He died in 15 minutes, before the emergency ambulance arrived to save him.

A criminal case was opened under the Clause 105 of the RF Criminal Code (murder committed by a group of persons for hooligan purposes).

The neo-fascists had thoroughly planned the accident. The call to attack the concert visitors and respective instructions were the highlights of Spartak fans forum. Through hearsay, the topic moderator was the person with Perovskiy nick, who is notorious in the neo-fascist community. The issue was crossed out of the forum straight after the attack but it remained in the cash of Internet searching vehicles.

During the discussion, one of the visitors suggested blowing up the club. Another visitor wanted to know about the guards of the club and whether it would be possible to bring the knives there and massacre inside it.

www.kommersant.com

Young man killed in Moscow in attack by neo-Nazis, group says
The Associated Press
Published: March 17, 2008

MOSCOW: A young man was stabbed to death in central Moscow in what activists described on Monday as an attack by neo-Nazis.

The Antifa anti-Nazi movement said in a blog that the 16-year-old, Alexei Krylov, was attacked by more than a dozen neo-Nazis armed with knives and fatally stabbed in the neck late Sunday. The attack just a few blocks away from the Kremlin occurred as Krylov and several others were heading to a punk music concert in a Moscow nightclub, Antifa said.

Moscow police spokesman Yevgeny Gildeyev confirmed that a young man was stabbed to death in downtown Moscow late Sunday, but would not identify the victim or give any details, saying the criminal probe was under way.

Antifa said that a young woman also was wounded in Sunday's attack. It said that in 2006 another young man died in a similar attack by neo-Nazis outside a Moscow nightclub.

Nationalist and neo-Nazi groups mushroomed after the 1991 Soviet collapse as a dramatic economic decline spread social frustration, particularly among youth. They targeted numerous guest workers from impoverished ex-Soviet republics in the Caucasus and Central Asia, students from Africa, visitors from Asian countries, Jews and Russian anti-Nazi activists.
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Rights activists have said that authorities, who earlier came under criticism for doing little to combat xenophobia, have been making efforts recently to investigate hate crimes more thoroughly and to take such cases to court.

Russian Neo Nazis declare war on ska/punk/hardcore

I CARE - News - Internet Centre Anti Racism Europe

15/10/2007- On October 13, 2007, in St. Petersburg, a ska/punk/hardcore festival “Music of the Streets” became a target of several neo-nazi attacks. The first incident happened at the beginning of the concert. A group of 15-20 neo-nazi skinheads attacked five young people. A young man had his arm broken and a girl was hospitalized with her head injured by a metal stick. The second incident happened when a Swedish group “Blisterhead” was on stage. A small bag which smelled like smoke was found in the hall and passed over to a guard who was standing near the stage. At that moment there were at least 300 hundred people in the hall. The tragedy didn’t occur only because of the swift response by the guards. The smoke was seen coming from the bag and one of the guards doused it with water and removed it from the building without attracting any attention from the crowd. The police found a homemade explosive device in the bag and the city prosecutor’s office initiated charges of illegal possession of explosives (Article 222 of the Criminal Code). The case was given over to the jurisdiction of the newly formed Investigation Committee. There has been no information about any charges of an attempted terrorist attack. The festival did not have any political overtones; however, a St. Petersburg group “Spitfire”, one of the headliners, is known as being antifascist. The festival had been widely discussed on the web by neo-nazis. Later all the discussions were deleted from the websites. Reportedly, there were more attacks on individuals before and during the concert. On October 15, St. Petersburg national socialists on their website implicitly took responsibility for these events, publishing a statement which approves the assaults and the attempted explosion and threatening antifascists and all the non-political supporters of the ska/punk/hardcore music with new attacks.

This stuff is all reminiscent of the eighties in the UK. Many UK neo-nazis prefer to wear suits now rather than being Boneheads but same feelings apply. They combine racist politics with a general tendency to violence.

2 Suspects Linked to Train Bomb
The Moscow Times, Russia - 5 Nov 2007

Two men suspected of trying to bomb a St. Petersburg club last month may have also been involved in the August bombing of a Moscow-St. Petersburg train, Fontanka.ru reported.

Vladimir Murzalev, former head of the St. Petersburg police's Primorsky district branch, told local organized crime and terrorism police units that his son -- Taras Murzalev -- and some of his friends might have been involved in the train bombing, the web site, which is run by the Agency of Journalistic Investigations, reported Friday.

It was unclear whether the former police official provided evidence for his claim, but his testimony was reported to Interior Minister Rashid Nurgaliyev, who ordered St. Petersburg detectives to follow up, Fontanka.ru reported.

Unknown assailants bombed the Nevsky Express train in the Novgorod region on Aug. 13, injuring 60. Investigators pursued different leads, including the possibility that the bomb might have been detonated by Russian nationalists.

Investigators detained two anarchists and a native of Chechnya on suspicion of having bombed the train but had to drop the case against all the three. Police detectives then arrested two Ingush brothers in late October on suspicion of bombing the train. Their fate remains unclear.

Taras Murzalev, 23, and two other suspects were detained in late October on suspicion of having tried to bomb the Rox Club in St. Petersburg.

In the Oct. 13 incident, unidentified assailants threw a bag on stage while Swedish punk band Blisterhead was finishing its set. Smoke was emanating from the bag, and the club's employees poured water on it before taking it outside.

A homemade bomb that did not detonate was subsequently discovered in the bag, consisting of 200 grams of TNT and about 800 grams of bolts, Fontanka.ru reported. If it had detonated, the bomb would have caused considerable carnage in the crowded club.

Detectives believe Taras Murzalev is a member of the Schultz-88 skinhead group, which has been implicated in numerous violent crimes, Fontanka.ru cited a police source as saying.

Chernov’s choice
St.Petersburg Times.ru, Russia -1 Nov 2007

An attempted bombing at a rock concert at the ROKS music club last month is still in the media spotlight as the police confirmed that three detained suspects belong to a neo-Nazi youth group on Wednesday, when top local police officers held a press briefing on the case.

A man aged 21 was detained last Thursday and two other men aged 20 and 21 were detained on Saturday, according to Fontanka.ru.

A diagram of the explosive device and bomb-making manuals were found when their apartments were searched.

A bag with an explosive device containing 200 grams of TNT and 700 grams of screw-bolts was found on stage by a guard during the performance of Swedish punk band Blisterhead.

The bomb did not go off because its makers made a mistake assembling it, the police were reported as saying.

The concert, which drew an estimated 400 fans, was stopped by the police as headlining local ska-band Spitfire was performing.

Article 205 of the Russian Criminal Code (terrorism), under which the detained men are being charged, can lead to 20-year prison term.

Local Nazis’ most infamous attack on a rock musician dates to Nov. 11, 2005, when 20-year-old Timur Kacharava, a punk musician and a philosophy student, was stabbed to death by a group of eight or 10 attackers in the city center, outside a Bukvoyed bookstore. An annual vigil has been held on the site on that date since then.

“I would get crazy if I were in Spitfire’s shoes,” said Alexei Nikonov of the politically-conscious local punk band PTVP that will perform a major concert at Orlandina on Friday.

“The concert is called ‘Against All,’ after the position in voting ballots that they [the Russian authorities] canceled and denied us an opportunity to vote ‘against all,’” said Nikonov by phone of Thursday.

“We decided to play political songs in this concert, but political in a broad sense — there will also be songs against philistines and against the clericalism that they push on us now.”

Despite the bomb incident and occasional visits by investigators, ROKS club is operating as usual, hosting British grindcore band Napalm Death on Friday (800 rubles, or $32, on the door.)

The headliners were:

Spitfire (Russian band) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Blisterhead have played the UK quite a bit.

Official Website:
www.blisterhead.nu

Neo Nazis attempt to bomb Rock club in Russia

It looks like the expanding far right in Russia are targeting alternative concerts as part of their battle against on the left wing youth and ethnic minorities:

"Music of the streets" festival under the bomb

"Yesterday 13th of October a bomb of 200 grams in trotyle equivalent failed to detonate in "Music of the streets" festival, organised in Roks club of St. Petersburg. Groups to perform in this festival were Spitfire (St. Petersburg), Blisterhead (Gothenburg, Sweden), Rejected (Lappeenranta, Finland), Turbo Lax (Tolyatti), Mister X (Grodno, Belarus), Engage At Will (St. Petersburg) and Mass Murder (St. Petersburg).

During concert, while Blisterhead was performing, audience noted a strange bag smoking in the hall, which was passed to the scene. Security quickly moved it to the yard, where it was covered with water. Anti-bomb squad found a bomb, 200 grams in trotyle equivalent, covered with 800 grams of bolts and other ripping objects. Concert was halted and people were evicted heavy-handedly from the premise, OMON riot police beat some people who were "on their way".

It is little doubt, that this bomb was set up by nazis, who have a long history of attempted attacks against Spitfire. 5 concert goers were also ambushed by 15-20 nazis armed with iron bars and bottles, one girl was hospitalized after being beaten to head with an iron bar, but she is already released from the hospital."

The St. Petersburg Times - News - Three Men Arrested Over Failed Bomb Attack on City Rock Club: 30/10

"Three Men Arrested Over Failed Bomb Attack on City Rock Club The St. Petersburg Times Three men have been detained by the local police in connection with an attempted bombing at a rock concert at the ROKS music club earlier this month, the local news service Fontanka.ru reported Monday. A man aged 21 was detained on Thursday and two other men aged 21 and 22 were detained on Saturday, according to Fontanka.ru. The diagram of the explosive device and bomb-making manuals were found when their apartments were searched. One of the three, who the police think was the leader, was a Muscovite.

A bag with an explosive device containing 200 grams of TNT and an amount of screw-bolts was thrown on stage during the performance of Swedish punk band Blisterhead. The bag, which started to smoke when it landed, was promptly extinguished and taken away by a guard.

The concert, which drew an estimated 400 fans, was stopped by the police as headlining local ska-band Spitfire was performing. “They checked the bomb and said that it didn’t explode because it was clumsily made,” said Spitfire drummer Denis Kuptsov on Monday.

“They stopped our performance after the eighth song and told everybody to leave.”

A case has been opened according to Article 222 of Russia’s Criminal Code (illegal possession of weapons and ammunition), which was later changed into Article 205 (terrorism), according to the agency. Although Fontanka.ru claims that police have not defined that the detainees were connected to any nationalist group, the agency earlier reported skinhead attacks near the club on the night of the concert.

It also interviewed musician Pavel Menshikov who was hospitalized with serious wounds after being attacked with knives and metal rods on his way to the concert. The police was not available for comment when contacted on Monday."