May 16th 2010 was the 6 month anniversary of the murder of an anti-fascist from Moscow, Ivan Khutorskoi, who was named by the press as the nformal leader of Moscow Anti-fascists.
In the first news reports about this tragedy the Nazis and other mainstream media tried to show Ivan as an aggressive marginal, emphasizing his nickname, ‘Bonecrusher,’ creating a myth that he was unemployed. However, all who knew him were aware of the fact that his nickname was given because of his achievements in professional sports. He was a Candidate for the Masters of Sport in arm wrestling, as well as having the second level in Sambo. As well as this, Khutorskoi was a lawyer working at a centre for the prevention of homelessness, criminality, HIV, alcohol and drug addiction among young people in Moscow called ‘Children of the Streets’.
Immediately after the murder on 16th November 2009, it became publicly known through international mainstream media, covered in Germany, the Netherlands, Denmark, Spain, USA, Finland, Ukraine, Poland, Turkey, Belarus and the UK…In many countries and even continents there were many
actions in the memory of Ivan. Across the world, the public were shocked by the violent character of this murder but the high profile of the case led civil society to be sure that the murderers would be punished. The authorities of the Russian Federation were expected to no longer close their eyes to the problem of Nazi terror, and start to actively fight it as they promised. Yet, since the murder no measures have been taken to find the perpetrators and the case remains unaddressed with suspects unnamed. And still murders happen. For the last years neo-nazis have widened their methods from the casual attacks on non-Russians, anti-fascists and sub-cultural youths to highly planned and organized exterminations of people who object to their inhumane ideologies. In the absence of punishment, neo-Nazis are increasing their activities with frequent barbaric murders of non-Russians becoming almost traditional and yet the names of those murdered are often unknown. The recent murder of judge Eduard Chuvashow is thought to be connected to his strong sentencing of neo-Nazis, for example, of the gang of Reno-Skachevskij and members of the group ‘White Wolves’. The judge was shot in the entrance to his apartment block with two shots. The official inquiry into the murder has already announced that the murder of Chuvashow was connected to his professional activity and members of illegal nationalist organizations were involved.
The ‘Committee of 19th January’ points to the clear consistency of the neo-Nazi’s actions: “The last murder is another example of the logic of Nazi terror: “The lack of punishment and direct support that many politicians and high-ranking officials provide for the neo-Nazis has encouraged far-right terror against those people considered to be external to the legal system. The longer that Nazi propaganda and racist murders go unpunished along with the terror against antifascists and people with an active civil position, the path is clear for extremist and neo-Nazi terror to become institutionalized. If the suspects for the murder of Alexander Riuhin had been arrested, Stas and Nastia (Markelov, Baburova) would not have been killed. If the case of the murder of Ivan Khutorskoi had been solved, perhaps the murder of Eduard Chuvashow would not have happened. We were calling for the prevention of future tragedies. We hope that this bloodbath is sufficient proof of the need for strong measures from all parts of society.”
Such declarations from the anti-facists, human rights defenders and experts in the field of human rights are ignored even though their worst predictions have been realized. In the last year in Russia the Nazis took the lives of almost 100 people. The majority of the victims were murdered for the single reason that they were born with a different color of skin than the murderers. Other people were murdered because they did not want to silently accept the Nazi’s outrages. Someone else became a victim just because there was no better target for the Nazi’s aggression. All these facts are not a secret to officials, police or journalists for whom the solving of these problems is their professional duty, but mostly they forget about this.
Even more surprising is the way that the government manages to ignore a problem which today is obvious not only on the streets but also in the media. On their webpages the Nazis are propagandizing xenophobia and are calling for the extermination of the ‘nation’s enemies’. Special websites have been created for collecting and publishing photos, addresses and other personal information needed for the following, monitoring and extermination of people who publicly declare their antifascist and antiracist position. There is a real absence of preventive measures for these kinds of murders while legal far-right organizations are supported in order to control the activity of the radical Nazis. This support for legal far-right organizations is used by their ruling elite to create protection for the murderers and terrorists. The Nazi militant and terrorist groups are acting under the cover of the nationalist legal organizations such as ‘Russkii Obraz’ and ‘Resistance’.
Concerts of bands forbidden in Russia, such as Kolovrat, who openly propagate racial and ethnic violence in their lyrics, are taking place in the city centre (under the Kremlin walls) with official recognition and acceptance of the authorities. Neo-Nazis are legally marching and holding their meetings in the centre of Moscow and other big cities. Training camps for militants of far right organizations, where they are taught to kill, are taking place without any counteraction or objection of the authorities.
Activities of the extreme right and the antifascists are exposed as identically opposite, in spite of no comparable crimes being made: murders, terrorist actions and propaganda of violence. Despite this, antifascists are facing repressions: illegal arrests, searches, and the forbidding of nearly all legal actions. For the second year in a row, police interrupted the antifascists’ symbolic actions of putting flowers and wreaths on the memorials of those who died in WW2 during the official commemoration events. Another good example of the way the authorities treat antifascist and other public organizations was the dispersion and illegal arrests of those who took part in the commemoration action of Baburova and Markelov, that took place a year after their murder.
We, human rights activists, antifascists and social activists from different countries, are shocked with the events in Russia. We are enraged by the lack of adequate reaction from the officials. How many more barbaric crimes should we expect until those who are supposed to ensure the security of society will finally start performing their duty? We demand the justice system finds and punishes those responsible for the murders of Ivan Khutorskoi and other victims of nazi terror. We demand the authorities stop financial and other support of radical nationalist groups, stop repressions against antifascists and social activists, and cooperate with human rights organizations opposing xenophobia. We demand to do whatever it takes to stop the nazi terror!
