"Russian March" held in Volgograd

About 30 nationalists took part in the "Russian March", held in Volgograd on July 15.

"We march out, and we do not use obscenities. If a person wants to raise his or her hand, we raise our hands in fists. The slogan 'Russia for Russians' is officially prohibited. We do not break the law. Fines are huge more than 100,000 roubles. We shout: Russia in Russian and glory of Christ, death of Antichrist," with those phrases, Anatoly Aboltkov, a member of the regional branch of the organization "People's Militia named after Minin and Pozharsky", addressed the participants of the "Russian March".

With drums beating, Volgograd nationalists started marching from the place of their gathering in KIM Street and went to the centre of the city, waving banners. Ten guys and girls were carrying a long banner. Against the backdrop of black-yellow-white stripes, the inscription was placed reading: "Future belongs to us!" The Volgograd nationalists glorified the victory in the Battle of the Neva with the slogans voicing: "Russia in Russian", "Russian city of Volgograd", "Glory to Russia". The participants of the march were accompanied by Cossack militiamen and policemen.

Anatoly Aboltkov told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent that the policemen voiced threats to the organizers and participants of the march.

"Today, there are a small number of us, you see. Why? Because we were intimidated by staff members of the division to combat extremism. They invited Sergey (Sergey Emelyanov, the organizer of the march, - note of the "Caucasian Knot"). They said that if someone would enter a lawn, shout the slogan 'Russia for Russians', if someone would raise his or her hand in a Slavic greeting, like our ancestors raised from their hearts, there would be a fine of 300,000," Anatoly Aboltkov says.

"The administration strongly resisted. They suggested us to go into some bushes and there meet our holiday. Not long ago, Glazunov, Chief of the Centre to Combat Extremism, personally filed a complaint against me to court for the fact that I said that he beat Russian guy Kuzmenkov and Russian girl Solovyova," Anatoly Aboltkov stated. He has also claimed that his colleague Dmitry Bokov, the head of the Volgograd organizing committee of the "Russian March", has been kept in custody not for the first month. According Anatoly Aboltkov, the arrest of Dmitry Bokov is a provocation of secret services.

Officials from the Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA) refused to comment.

Passers-by treated the march of the nationalists differently. For example, pensioner Pavel Volkov said that he did not understand those people. Spouses Konstantin and Kristina Perets commented the nationalist slogans of the marchers in the negative. Student Andrei Vishinsky, on the contrary, supported the participants of the nationalist action and stated that "Russia was in danger, and only the Russian idea could save the country."

Political scientist Andrei Bachman, an activist of the anti-fascist movement in Volgograd, has expressed his sharp rejection of the slogans and ideas of the Russian nationalists and called them "a dangerous relic of the past." At the same time, he spoke against the repressive, according to him, actions of the police against the Volgograd nationalists.

"By intimidating nationalists and running them to underground, the Centre to Combat Extremism breeds thugs and underground terrorists. This is a very dangerous phenomenon. If those people want to show their activity let them show it on the outskirts of the city, where no one sees them. Officials should not allow them to walk in the centre the Mayoralty has the right to prohibit that. However, the authorities should also not intimidate them by threats, to keep them in custody on fabricated reasons, to organize provocations against them the authorities should not do that. All that will result in terrorism," Andrei Bachman stated.

During the march of nationalists, no provocations and detentions were noticed.