Russia Journal - 04.15.2002

Moscow Braces for Skinheads on Hitler's Birthday From Reuters MOSCOW - Moscow city police said on Monday they planned to tighten security before April 20, the anniversary of Adolf Hitler's birthday, which skinhead gangs have marked with violence in the past. Last week, the U.S. embassy warned its citizens in Russia to avoid crowds where gangs of shorn-headed nationalist youth gather. Violence by skinheads peaks in April and May, and foreigners may be a target, the embassy said. "April 20 is coming, and soon we will cut up blacks and Jews!" someone called called Stepan wrote on Monday in a popular skinhead Internet chat room called Russia's Front. Yevgeny Gildeyev, spokesman for Moscow city police, said preparations were being made. "Operational intelligence has been gathered and we are planning to guarantee security. The plan will probably be announced in the next few days," he said. Skinhead gangs, modelled on nationalist organisations in Western Europe, have spread among disaffected and poor youth in the former Soviet Union, especially in the past few years. On Sunday, about 50 youths attacked a synagogue in Kiev, capital of neighbouring Ukraine, shouting "Kill the Jews", beating up Jewish worshippers and smashing windows. Violence on the anniversary of Hitler's 1889 birthday has become traditional. Last April 20, Russian skinheads went on a rampage in an ethnic Azeri street market, trashing stalls and beating merchants. A Chechen man was stabbed to death in another part of Moscow. A few days after Hitler's birthday in 1998, a group of youths broke the teeth of a black U.S. Marine embassy guard in an attack in a park. Spring is also the peak of the soccer season, often accompanied by skinhead violence. A league match between bitter cross-town rivals CSKA and Spartak is scheduled for Sunday, April 21. Both teams' fans include gangs of extremist youths who have clashed in the past. Police usually deploy thousands of officers at city matches. Ukrainian police believe the youths in this weekend's Kiev attack were also soccer fans returning from a match. In Russia, where the triumph against Hitler's Germany is seen as the greatest national achievement, reverence for the Nazi leader is polarising even within extremist groups. On the Russia's Front website someone called "13th" wrote: "You are not patriots of Russia but worshippers of Hitler, and your entire movement comes from the West."