RUSSIA: Scuffles break out as nationalists rally, police detain dozens. Putin lays wreath at monument to national heroes

A mass fist fight erupted between supporters of Russian nationalist parties and anti-fascist demonstrators when the two opposing groups met in the centre of St Petersburg on Saturday (November 4, 2006). The nationalists march was part of a nation-wide campaign organised by Russian anti-immigration movements who used the November 4 holiday to call for stricter migration laws and a deportation of illegal immigrants. Waving old Tsarist flags and yelling 'Glory to Russia', a group of a few hundred nationalists as they marched through the centre of St Petersburg. "No Fascism in Russia" shouted a group of antiracism activists as the nationalists approached. Russian riot police intervened with batons to end the fight and detained several protesters. The nationalists march took place despite a ban. Moscow and St Petersburg authorities banned any marches to prevent a repeat of last year's events, when neo-Nazis paraded through central Moscow chanting racist slogans and allowed only small groups of nationalists to gather in fixed locations away from the city centre. About 700 activists rallied in central Moscow against fascism in Russia. The demonstrators called on authorities and society to take measures to prevent ethnic strife in the country. A podium where activists spoke was covered by a huge banner saying, "Russia without fascism". Some people carried banners saying, "Our slogan is simple, fascism is not cool", and "Homophobia is fascism." "Russian society is becoming fascist, and this will bring Russia to its destruction, and to bloodshed," said Sergei Udaltsov, leader of the communist youth group, Avant-garde Red Youth (AKM). Earlier in the day, around 2,000 nationalists gathered at a Moscow park for an officially sanctioned meeting under the gaze of police in full body armour. They waved old Tsarist flags and chanted "Glory to Russia" as a police helicopter buzzed overhead. Similar protests were held in cities across the country, from Vladivostok on the Pacific coast to St Petersburg in the west. Meanwhile, President Vladimir Putin, flanked by students, laid flowers at a monument honouring Russian 17th century heroes on Red Square as part of ceremonies marking National Unity Day. The origins of the Unity Day are a so-called popular uprising in 1612 against a Polish attempt to put its candidate on the throne in Moscow following 15 years of civil war. The uprising was led by Prince Dmitri Pozharsky, and a butcher, Kozma Minin. While the anti-Polish uprising is shrouded in myth and probably wasn't so widespread as the official line claims, it has proven a powerful rallying cry for nationalist and anti-immigration movements, many of whom would like to 'cleanse' Russia of elements they see as undesirable.

ITN Source | November 5, 2006

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