Swastika & ‘Long live Breivik’: Nationalists march in Moscow

MOSCOW –  Thousands of nationalists marched through Moscow on Sunday chanting slogans such as “Russia for the Russians” to protest President Vladimir Putin’s government, which they accuse of lavishing privileges on migrants and minorities while ignoring ethnic Russians.

The anti-Kremlin tone of the nationalists, who once backed Putin, comes as the movement’s leaders try to broaden their base in the wake of last winter’s historic opposition protests against the Russian leader. Some nationalists are even denouncing violence and racism, moves many mainstream opposition activists view with suspicion.

Sunday’s march took place on Unity Day, a national holiday established in 2005 to replace commemorations of the Bolshevik Revolution. It has become associated with the nationalist “Russian March,” which has taken a stridently anti-Kremlin tone. More than 40 Russian Marches were held throughout the country during the day.

Nationalist leaders believe many ordinary Russians share their concerns but that they are put off by their movement’s more radical members. As a result, some nationalist leaders have denounced racism and violence and some are even trying to set up a more mainstream political party.

“You hear it all the time: ‘I’ve really had it with the darkies, but I’m still not a nationalist,’” nationalist leader Konstantin Krylov told The Associated Press last week. “And then people go up to me after I speak at protests and say, ‘Listen, you’re a nationalist, but you’re telling it like it is.’”

Although they make up a small part of the broad anti-Putin protest movement, nationalists are among its most visible members, thanks in part to their experience organizing Russian Marches. Nationalists have spoken at rallies alongside major opposition figures and ran for the opposition movement’s elected governing council last month.

But mainstream opposition leaders are wary of the nationalists’ violent racist elements, and few share their enthusiasm for a unified protest movement. Some organized a largely successful campaign to ensure that moderate nationalists were elected to the governing council instead of radicals.

And several liberals called for one nationalist to be expelled from the governing council after he wrote on Facebook that Sunday's march would be "as happy as the Holocau... as Halloween!"
Read more

Some of Russia’s most-radical political groups are out in force this Sunday – from die-hard nationalists to outright fascists. In dozens of cities, tens of thousands have joined marches – chanting against immigration, Israel, Islam and all-things-foreign. RT’s Lucy Kafanov has been watching the crowds in Moscow.

thank you for the video Harry L Hughes III

Short URL: http://www.newsnet14.com/?p=111792