"Russian March" held in Volgograd

At midday on February 23, the "Russian March", sanctioned by the authorities, started from the House of Culture "Metroelectrotrans" in Volgograd. The main slogan of Volgograd nationalists was: "Down with Corruption and Russophobia in Governmental Bodies!"

More than three hundred members belonging to different nationalist associations marched through the streets of the Voroshilov and Tsentralny Districts of Volgograd. They shouted out nationalist slogans and calls for sobriety and refusal to use drugs and tobacco.

"Today, the word 'Russian' is missing in the Constitution. The authorities deliberately do everything to have the Russian nation dead, both from the legal and actual viewpoints. And when we go out onto the streets of our Russian city, where more than 80 percent of the Russian population are living, we ask: who has turned us into dead bodies?" Stanislav Terentyev, one of the organizers of the action, chairman of the Russian Community of the Volgograd Region and editor-in-chief of the newspaper "Kolokol" (Bell), explained the stand of the demonstrators.

In the course of talking with the protesters, the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent learnt about their main ideas. The authorities should deal with "ethnic criminality," "not with people who are at war with it." It is necessary to introduce visa regime with the countries of Transcaucasia and Middle Asia. Activists demand to deport illegal immigrants, "since they are the main spreaders of extremism and Wahhabism in our country." Nationalists also want to have their "Russian Community (Russian Cultural Centre, - note of the "Caucasian Knot") in an accessible place."

The march was also attended by the nationalist Movement Against Illegal Immigration (MAII), which had been recently suspended by the Prosecutor's Office. According to Mr Terentyev, all those who share the position of the organizers were invited to attend the march.

One of the slogans of the nationalists was: "Volgograd is a Russian City". When asked by the correspondent about how to deal with other nations who live here, one of young marchers, who refused to give his name, replied: "They should all be evicted from here!"

"Currently, these marches are the most socially dangerous phenomenon in Russia. They are of special danger in our rebellious time for such a multinational city like Volgograd, since it may provoke a series of violent ethnic conflicts or riots," said Andrei Bachman, a political scientist and activist of the antifascist movement of Volgograd.

"The authorities made a blunder by authorising the march in Volgograd, the place where fascism was soundly defeated in the Second World War. Such marches shall be banned once and forever in our city," he said.

"I think that 'Russian March' is an expression of the policy of the Russian state over the past 20 years, when national issues have been given no attention. The state seeking a symbol of the enemy, against whom young people could be easily sent. And it was apparently found in the form of nationalist organizations," Vladimir Kuryshev, a political scientist and blogger from Volgograd, shared his opinion.

According to his story, after the events in Manege Square, the "Russian March" is a threat for those in power. "But they have nothing to counter this phenomenon and try to live with it so far," he said.