Moscow: Neo-Nazis and Orthodox fanatics voice support for Breivik

News server iDNES.cz reports that Moscow has just experienced a wave of extreme hatred against immigrants and of ultra-nationalism. The so-called "Russian March" has taken place in the capital during which roughly 6 000 neo-Nazis and ultraconservative adherents of the Orthodox Church demonstrated in favor of purging Russia of all newcomers.

"Russia for the Russians, Moscow for the Muscovites," marchers chanted during a demonstration marking Unity Day, a holiday declared by the Kremlin seven years ago. This year the holiday also coincided with the 400th anniversary of the expulsion of Lithuanian/Polish military forces from Moscow.

"Immigrants have no intention whatsoever of integrating into Russian society. If something doesn’t change, we can expect enormous ethnic clashes," a 25-year-old man named Sergei told the Ria Novosti press agency.

The march was attended by approximately 6 000 people, according to police who deployed roughly the same number of patrols to maintain order at the event.

Police officers arrested 25 people who had taken to the streets adorned with Nazi symbols prior to the start of the march. Dozens more were arrested by police officers at similar marches in Kazan, St. Petersburg or Yekaterinburg.

Many participants in the Moscow march, which started at the Cathedral of Christ the Savior, covered their faces with dark glasses, hoods or surgical masks. Adherents of the Orthodox Church led the march wearing black t-shirts reading "Orthodoxy or Death" and wielding crucifixes and icons.

"I am against immigration. I am also against the idea of political correctness and tolerance – there is not a single mention of tolerance in the Bible," declared Leonid Simonovich-Nikshich, the head of the Union of Orthodox Standard-Bearers. Some marchers even loudly voiced their sympathy for Anders Breivik, the self-proclaimed anti-immigration militant who murdered 77 people in Norway last year.

"False Dmitriy" Putin

After the march, bloody clashes ensued between anti-fascists and nationalists. Both camps clashed at the Dostoyevskaya metro station. "Nationalists shouting ‘Glory to Russia’ attacked my anti-fascist friends and threw one of them onto the tracks," Isabel Magkoyevová told the Ria Novosti press agency.

According to the Sova organization, which monitors the activity of extremist movements, there were 20 racially motivated murders and 130 racially motivated injuries committed in Russia last year. Russian President Vladimir Putin calls himself a nationalist and is promising to proceed harshly against "aggressive immigrants".

During the march, however, shouts against Putin were also heard. One banner depicted him as the False Dimitriy I, the poor noble whom the Polish king put on the Russian throne at the start of the 17th century.

Nationalists dislike the generous financial subsidies the Kremlin wants to use to tame a restive Caucasus. They are also demanding that felony racial motivation be removed from the criminal code.