Anti-Fascists in St. Petersburg Attacked Supporters of the Movement Against Illegal Migrants September 17 2007. In St. Petersburg there was a massive fight between anti-fascists and activists from the Movement Against Illegal Migrants (DPNI) which carried out a sanctioned meeting connected with the events in Kondopog. Thirty people in all participated in the protest organized by DPNI. According to the media, those in the meeting were attacked by youth wearing black masks, who also numbered about thirty (the number of those attacked is well visible in photographs shown on radical right websites.) With cries of �Antifa� they threw fire devices, smoke bombs and several bottles and started to beat meeting participants. According to information given by DPNI activists, the attackers were armed with bottles, sticks and knives. Three people received knife injuries as a result of the attack and were hospitalized in Kuibysheva hospital. In this case anti-fascists assert that a friend of theirs was among the injured. Several more people obtained craniocerebral injuries and limb damage. Police officers who were present at the meeting provided reinforcement. All in all they detained twenty one people. The police refused to provide details about those detained. "There is no doubt that it was a far-left organization that attacked the meeting. This was a paid action intended to provoke us to act reciprocally and compromise our motion. We will, however, act according to the law with the help of power structures. And we will pay 50, 000 rubles to the person that can recognize the attackers. We will find them and detain them�, said DPNI�s leader A. Belov. "I don�t think it is an actual existing movement which was interested in attacking these people. All this noise was created by the DPNI thanks to the media-effect and raising their quotes�, expressed Valery Korovin, the leader of the Eurasian Youth Union. (We notice that the rightist march was organized by the application of EYU and DPNI). Journialists voice the assumption that the anti-fascist group �red skinheads� will be guilty of this event, a deeply conspired group of adolescents who have repeatedly attacked the nationalists. "This attack is a unique vengeance for Kondropog. Given that the DPNI were the ones thought to have attacked and provoked the mass appearances of nationalists. The methods, however, are not revealed by the attackers so as to disadvantage those who fight fascism�, told the deputy chairman of the Moscow department of �Yabloko� Alexei Navalny. By the evening of September 18, it became known that the majority of arrested persons are released. Some of them have paid an administrative penalty from 500 up to 1000 rubles. Two arrested persons were charge with item 213 of the criminal code (hooliganism). On September, 27, 2007 in Leninsk regional court hearings, an affair about an attack on anti-fascists at a meeting of the DPNI began. On the dock were 6 participants accused of an attack related to item 213 of the criminal code of the Russian Federation (hooliganism) and item 282.1 (organization of an extremist community). Certainly, attacks with the application of violence are illegal independent of from under what slogans these attacks are undertaken. Neither reasons of revenge, nor are ideological motives justification. Such attacks against nationalists only strengthen their positions in society. Source: SOVA Center
Anti-Fascists in St. Petersburg Attacked Supporters of the Movement Against Illegal Migrants
Thirty people in all participated in the protest organized by DPNI. According to the media, those in the meeting were attacked by youth wearing black masks, who also numbered about thirty (the number of those attacked is well visible in photographs shown on radical right websites.) With cries of �Antifa� they threw fire devices, smoke bombs and several bottles and started to beat meeting participants. According to information given by DPNI activists, the attackers were armed with bottles, sticks and knives.
Three people received knife injuries as a result of the attack and were hospitalized in Kuibysheva hospital. In this case anti-fascists assert that a friend of theirs was among the injured.
Several more people obtained craniocerebral injuries and limb damage. Police officers who were present at the meeting provided reinforcement. All in all they detained twenty one people. The police refused to provide details about those detained.
"There is no doubt that it was a far-left organization that attacked the meeting. This was a paid action intended to provoke us to act reciprocally and compromise our motion. We will, however, act according to the law with the help of power structures. And we will pay 50, 000 rubles to the person that can recognize the attackers. We will find them and detain them�, said DPNI�s leader A. Belov.
"I don�t think it is an actual existing movement which was interested in attacking these people. All this noise was created by the DPNI thanks to the media-effect and raising their quotes�, expressed Valery Korovin, the leader of the Eurasian Youth Union. (We notice that the rightist march was organized by the application of EYU and DPNI).
Journialists voice the assumption that the anti-fascist group �red skinheads� will be guilty of this event, a deeply conspired group of adolescents who have repeatedly attacked the nationalists.
"This attack is a unique vengeance for Kondropog. Given that the DPNI were the ones thought to have attacked and provoked the mass appearances of nationalists. The methods, however, are not revealed by the attackers so as to disadvantage those who fight fascism�, told the deputy chairman of the Moscow department of �Yabloko� Alexei Navalny.
By the evening of September 18, it became known that the majority of arrested persons are released. Some of them have paid an administrative penalty from 500 up to 1000 rubles. Two arrested persons were charge with item 213 of the criminal code (hooliganism).
On September, 27, 2007 in Leninsk regional court hearings, an affair about an attack on anti-fascists at a meeting of the DPNI began. On the dock were 6 participants accused of an attack related to item 213 of the criminal code of the Russian Federation (hooliganism) and item 282.1 (organization of an extremist community).
Certainly, attacks with the application of violence are illegal independent of from under what slogans these attacks are undertaken. Neither reasons of revenge, nor are ideological motives justification. Such attacks against nationalists only strengthen their positions in society.
Source: SOVA Center
