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Last update - 11:15 28/09/2007
Russian neo-Nazis follow tactics of Al-Qaeda
By Nickolai Butkevich, Haaretz Correspondent
Tags: Israel, Neo-Nazis, Russia

The scene is depressingly familiar in the post-9/11 era. Two terrified victims kneeling with their hands tied behind their backs as a masked thug menaces them with a sword. The hostages are forced to spout propaganda, which in the end doesn't save them from a grisly, on-camera death. But in a video released last month, the killers are not the followers of Al-Qaida, but Russian neo-Nazis taking a page out of the terrorists' handbook.

Entitled 'The Execution of a Tajik and a Dagestani,' the video shows neo-Nazis decapitating one man and shooting the other in the back of the head against the backdrop of a large swastika flag. Both victims belong to traditionally Muslim ethnic minority groups from the southern region of what used to be the Soviet Union.

Over the past two decades, millions of predominately dark-skinned and Muslim migrants have come from there to Russia looking for work. Resentment against them is growing as the general public becomes increasingly nationalistic.
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Given this climate, neo-Nazi gangs have spread like a cancer over the past 10 years and are now present in the vast majority of Russia?s cities, even in isolated regions like Siberia and the Russian far north. These groups use the Internet not just to spread propaganda, but also as an organizational tool. They brazenly post death lists of 'enemies of the Russian people' - primarily human rights activists and anti-fascists - on their Web sites, along with the addresses and telephone numbers of their targets, some of whom have ended up beaten or killed.

Footage of neo-Nazi attacks, fascist rallies, race riots and mass interethnic brawls are a regular feature of the Russian-language Internet. In other words, this jihadi-style 'execution' did not happen in a vacuum. Nevertheless, it is a seminal moment in the propaganda efforts of the Russian neo-Nazi movement because for the first time they are shown killing rather than just beating their victims.

A few hours after it was posted, the video was removed from YouTube and the widely read LiveJournal.com Web site, where it originally appeared, but not before inspiring a wave of comments and news reports. Reactions from visitors to the LiveJournal site are so far evenly divided between condemnation and praise for the killers. Russian bloggers have widely distributed still shots from the video. One shows the decapitated man with his severed head propped up on his chest, another the second victim lying face down in a shallow grave.

It is important to keep in mind that while police are investigating the incident, the identities of the putative killers and victims remain unknown, and no bodies or any other form of evidence aside from the video have been found. It is therefore possible that the video is a sophisticated, albeit sick-minded, prank, though most experts believe it to be genuine.

Fake or not, its very plausibility speaks volumes about the state of interethnic relations in Russia today. Opinion polls show that more than 50 percent of the Russian public supports the far-right slogan 'Russia for ethnic Russians,' and in the last parliamentary elections, 20 percent of the vote went to two extremist nationalist parties.

Two years ago, 19 members of parliament signed a letter calling Judaism a 'satanic' religion. Responding to this sentiment, President Vladimir Putin has in recent months contradicted his past statements on behalf of interethnic tolerance by calling for a law banning foreign market traders. Last year he presided over a racist witch hunt that resulted in the detention of thousands of ethnic Georgians.

According to the Sova Center - an NGO that tracks hate crimes in Russia - the number of murders motivated by ethnic hatred is on the rise. There were 47 such killings in 2005, 55 in 2006, and 23 in the first four months of this year.

Given the Russian police?s common practice of 'cooking the books' to artificially lower hate crime statistics, these numbers are very likely just the tip of the iceberg. The Russian news media reports non-fatal attacks against ethnic minorities daily; so often, in fact, that such stories have become almost background noise for the majority of readers.
Unfortunately, this blase attitude is shared by many Russian law enforcement officials, who view hate crimes and extremist nationalist groups as run-of-the-mill crimes committed by 'ordinary hooligans' instead of as an existential threat to the stability of a country made up of more than 100 distinct ethnic groups, some of whose members are becoming increasingly dissatisfied with the government?s unwillingness to take a hard line against violent far-right groups. Perhaps this video?s silver lining is that its cynical barbarism may shake those who see it out of their passivity. If not, the situation will only get worse.

The writer is Research and Advocacy Director at UCSJ: Union of Councils for Jews in the Former Soviet Union
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  1.   It`s a question of Style 11:07  |  Natallie Durson 28/09/07
  2.   Sick. I`m talking about Natallie..not the Nazis 11:55  |  SLAVO 28/09/07
  3.   Natalie..first to post...has Haaretz as her homepage 11:57  |  Stayin Alive 28/09/07
  4.   Nothing to serious 12:13  |  Chris Linthwaite 28/09/07
  5.   The Slave dude and Stalin, I mean STAYIN 12:20  |  Ral 28/09/07
  6.   Russian neo-nazis 12:53  |  deborah 28/09/07
  7.   hate/death cults 13:01  |  akiva (zionist) 28/09/07
  8.   Deborah, the Born Again 13:05  |  Ral 28/09/07
  9.   #6 Deborah 13:09  |  Chris Linthwaite 28/09/07
  10.   Ms. Durson.... 13:12  |  Tess 28/09/07
  11.   Contrary to sick minds like Naziliie`s... 13:20  |  Nik Miller 28/09/07
  12.   Wrong comparison 13:25  |  Gene 28/09/07
  13.   Tess 13:32  |  Natallie Durson 28/09/07
  14.   #10 Tess 13:33  |  Chris Linthwaite 28/09/07
  15.   Russia`s Neo Nazis. 13:54  |  David Nigel Braham 28/09/07
  16.   # 10 Tess, Not to mock the dead 14:35  |  Lynn 28/09/07
  17.   # 5 Ral 14:41  |  Lynn 28/09/07
  18.   Chris, you misunderstand my point... 14:51  |  Tess 28/09/07
  19.   AL-QAEDA... IS A US CREATION 15:14  |  TrippleJump 28/09/07
  20.   Actually, Chris Linthwaite... 15:15  |  Ral 28/09/07
  21.   Small hooligans and Great Powers 1. 15:22  |  zmogus 28/09/07
  22.   Small hooligans and Great Powers 2. 15:23  |  zmogus 28/09/07
  23.   To Natallie 15:50  |  Gene 28/09/07
  24.   #17 Sorry Tess 16:38  |  Chris Linthwaite 28/09/07
  25.   Tomorrow, I`ll read that all anti-semites are Al-Quaida followers 16:41  |  Stef 28/09/07
  26.   #18 Dramatic Tripple Jump - 1 16:47  |  Alice of Wonderland 28/09/07
  27.   Small hooligans and Great Powers 1. 16:58  |  zmogus 28/09/07
  28.   Small hooligans and Great Powers 2. 16:59  |  zmogus 28/09/07
  29.   #18 Dramatic Tripple Jump - 2 17:00  |  Alice of Wonderland 28/09/07
  30.   Ms. Natalie Durson 17:17  |  Steven Whitney 28/09/07
  31.   Natalie Durson reply 17:30  |  Question 28/09/07
  32.   #6, Deborah actually provides an example of my point... 17:49  |  zmogus 28/09/07
  33.   What the heck is happening in Russia? Ne0-Nazis? 19:05  |  I thought 28/09/07
  34.   The emerging new paradigm; no more anti-Semitism 19:30  |  Tosefta 28/09/07
  35.   Natalie 20:00  |  H 28/09/07
  36.   anywhere a muslum steps... 20:14  |  Igor D. 28/09/07
  37.   to jew haters.. 20:17  |  Igor D. 28/09/07
  38.   #33 I thought 20:20  |  Chris Linthwaite 28/09/07
  39.   Kissing Natalie Durson 20:50  |  Tom 28/09/07
  40.   Nazis did not hate Russians, they hated Bolsheviks 21:57  |  Uri 28/09/07
  41.   of course... 22:14  |  Jeff 28/09/07
  42.   #33, `I thought`. Some general impressions on the topic 22:22  |  zmogus 28/09/07
  43.   # 34 Tosefta 22:31  |  Lynn 28/09/07
  44.   Lynn and Natalie.... 00:55  |  Tess 29/09/07
  45.   so sad 01:20  |  sweis Melbourne 29/09/07
  46.   government jobs? 01:24  |  sweis Melbourne 29/09/07
  47.   Eastern Antisemitism 05:17  |  JOJO 29/09/07
  48.   # 6 to deborah in jackson 08:35  |  eric 29/09/07
  49.   # 34 but then again, tosefta; what if? 09:05  |  eric 29/09/07
  50.   WHAT GARBAGE YOU SPOUT TOFESTA !!! 12:04  |  Anthony Fallon 29/09/07
  51.   1. Natallie Durson: It`s a question of humanity 12:36  |  KUTW 29/09/07
  52.   4.Nothing to serious 12:39  |  KUTW 29/09/07
  53.   Tosefta #34 13:18  |  Tess 29/09/07
  54.   Eric the Perpetrator 14:18  |  Albert Seligman 29/09/07
  55.   Gene 14:52  |  Right Thinking 29/09/07
  56.   Do you prefer Jewish Neo-cons? (Lynn #43) 14:59  |  Tosefta 29/09/07
  57.   My garbage, and yours (A. Fallon #50) 15:15  |  Tosefta 29/09/07
  58.   Slav haters 15:16  |  sweis Melbourne 29/09/07
  59.   Uncertain future (Tess #53) 15:23  |  Tosefta 29/09/07
  60.   #37 Igor D. 15:56  |  Sarah 29/09/07
  61.   REVERSION TO BARBARISM 17:11  |  SM 29/09/07
  62.   Natalie Durson - killing of innocents 17:21  |  Avrum 29/09/07
  63.   To Ral...theres no doubt what you would have done 18:23  |  SLAVO 29/09/07
  64.   Hey Ral. Yes...I am the disco king. Now and 4ever 18:34  |  Stayin Alive 29/09/07
  65.   re #2 `Sick. I`m talking about Natalie...` 20:40  |  Colin Wright 29/09/07
  66.   re: eric, again 20:45  |  Efox 29/09/07
  67.   re Natalie Durson #10 `Tess` 20:47  |  Colin Wright 29/09/07
  68.   re: Tosefta 20:50  |  Efox 29/09/07
  69.   re Tosefta #34 `The emerging new paradigm...` 21:00  |  Colin Wright 29/09/07
  70.   To Colin...so why do you oppose Israel, good friend? 00:53  |  SLAVO 30/09/07
  71.   NOT much difference between Neo Nazi and Islamist ideology 06:52  |  PETER SM 30/09/07
  72.   # 54 poor albert; he`s missed my point 07:18  |  eric 30/09/07
  73.   # 66 to efox and his infinite blindness 07:32  |  eric 30/09/07
  74.   well done 09:51  |  Imad 30/09/07
  75.   #69, Colin Wright to Tosefta. 16:31  |  zmogus 30/09/07
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