On the 24th of May a group of young people were celebrating their friend’s birthday on the Moscow river embankment in the north-western part of the city. With the party coming to an end, the company started to dissolve while the rest, around 15 people and mostly girls remained to collect the rubbish. At this juncture they were attacked by a group of neo-Nazis (about 40 people) coming from the bridge, shooting their non-lethal guns and screaming «It’s them, get them!” According to the witness neo-Nazis sought to beat each and everyone. One of the girls got her back injured hit by a cobble. When the guys returned to the place most of them managed to get away from, they found their friend Dmitry Kashitsyn lying in blood. He got severely wounded. Dmitry died on the spot even before the police and the ambulance arrived. He was 27.
Having spoken with the witnesses of the tragedy we can try and represent the incident. Young people were peacefully celebrating their friend’s birthday. Many of them were musicians or just heavy/ hardcore/punk music fans with typical for this subculture looks. It is very likely that it came to be this feature and, especially, the guys’ tattoos that caught attention of the neo-Nazis who decided to attack them because they thought them to be anti-fascist activists. The assault was well-planned and deliberate, which is evidenced by the following facts. The first point is that it happened at the end of the celebration, which means that some of the Nazis might have noticed a group of young people, spread the word about that and started preparing an attack. The second is that at the very moment of the attack the Nazis were shouting Nazi slogans and were having non-lethal guns and knives on them. The third point is that they were all wearing masks.
Dmitry’s friends told us that all of the young people present at the birthday party had no relation to the anti-fascist movement and took no interest in politics. Dmitry Kashitsyn had no relation to antifascists either, he just loved heavy music and rarely visited his favorite bands’ concerts. None of the victims had self-defense weapon and they got baffled by such an impudent attack.
As a result neo-Nazis attacked young people who were peacefully resting, beat them up and killed a young Russian guy just because they suspected him of having the opposite views.
Once again this tragedy shows us that the threat of getting beaten up or killed by neo-Nazis is real and concerns each of us, regardless of age, sex and nationality.
Antifascists from Moscow express their condolences to Dmitry’s family. We will do anything to ensure that those who did it will not get away unpunished. This tragedy has proven that there is an urgent need to confront the neo-Nazis and all those who sympathize with them. It is everyone’s duty to do their best to ensure that such tragic event never happens again.
Dmitry’s friends started a fundraising campaign to support his family.
