Moscow Times - 02.05.2003

Moscow Times

Interior Ministry Gives the Facts on Skinheads

By Nabi Abdullaev

There are about 20,000 skinheads across the country, and the largest number lives in St. Petersburg, the Interior Ministry said Tuesday.

The skinheads, however, are largely unorganized and disunited in their activities, Valery Komarov, a high-ranking ministry official, said at a news conference.

The ministry believes there are about 2,500 skinheads in Moscow, and the police have identified about 100 of their leaders, Komarov said. The 5,000 skinheads in St. Petersburg belong to 70 different groups, he said.

In a rare effort to work together, the St. Petersburg groups tried to organize a torch-lit march through the city in the fall, but the police managed to put a stop to the plans, he said, without elaborating.

Alexander Grichanin, who heads the ministry department dealing with juvenile extremism, said Moscow police intercepted information that allowed them to prevent 50 skinhead attacks last year. 

Komarov said there was no single ringleader behind the skinhead movement.

"The only organization that skinheads have is territorial -- they usually come from one neighborhood," he said. "They also don't have any agenda other than to carry out aggressive actions."

Grichanin said youths are attracted to the movement by the Nazi insignia, a sense of impunity and a willingness to resort to violence.

"They often have no idea about the history and the objectives of the skinhead movement," he said.

Even though the number of media reports about racially motivated attacks has soared in recent months, only 16 skinheads were convicted last year, Komarov said. Five of them were found guilty of participating in a deadly rampage at Moscow's Tsaritsyno market in 2001, he said. In total, 31 cases were investigated and sent to court last year, he said.

"The objective is to prevent crime and to put young men on the right track -- punishing as many of them as possible is not our goal," Komarov said.

He said that in dealing with skinheads, police are focusing on identifying their leaders and holding "prophylactic talks" with them in an effort to find out the sources of their funding and whatever ties they might have with other skinhead groups.