Two Nazi-skinhead Groups face Criminal Charges in Moscow

On July 1, 2008, the district attorney's office passed two criminal cases to the Moscow City Law Court, concerning the accusations against "the Ryno gang; and :the Ivan Kalinichenko gang;.

Accused in the Ryno gang affair are Артур Рыно (Arthur Ryno) and Павел Скачевский (Pavel Skachevskiy), the organizers of the group, as well as seven of its members, including a minor adolescent. In the matter of Ivan Kalinichenko's gang, the ones facing charges are: Илья Шутко (Ilya Shutko), Сергей Полукаров (Sergey Polukarov), and a minor teenager (considered to be the organizers of the group) and ten of its members, including two minors. What is especially troubling about these groups is the very young age of their members: at the moment of the arrest, Ryno was 17 years old, and his gang included a 15-year old; the leaders of the other group were then 17, 16, and 15 respectively.

The charges against the two groups are based on Article 282, Part 2, Paragraphs "а' and "b' of the Russian Criminal Code (forbidding the incitement of hatred and hostility perfected with use of violence by an organized group); Article 30, Part 3; Article 105, Part 2, Paragraphs "h', "j', "m'; Article 30, Part 3; Article 105, Part 2, Paragraphs "а', "h', "j', "m' (concerned with the attempted murder of two or more people by an organized group, through a hooligan impulse, and based on racial hatred and hostility); Article 105, Part 2, Paragraphs "а', "h', "j', "l' (concerned with the murder of two or more people by an organized group, through a hooligan impulse, and based on racial hatred and hostility); Article 213, Part 2 (condemning premeditated hooliganism by an organized group). In a number of instances, several of the accused are charged with crimes that fall under Article 161, Part 3, Paragraph "а' (premeditated robbery by an organized group).

It was established that both groups follow the same pattern of committing the crimes. :Under the influence of the ideas propagated in different ways by illegal youth organizations about the exclusiveness of the Russian nationality and the inferiority of the people of non-Slavic origin, the accused gathered in organized groups to commit murders of the natives of the former Soviet Republics in Asia and the Caucasus,; the Moscow district attorney's office reports.

From August to October 2007, the members of the first criminal group murdered twenty people and injured other 12, with different degrees of gravity. The second group is accused of the murder of two people, including that of the international chess champion from Yakutiya, Сергей Николаев (Sergey Nikolayev), and 9 attacks resulting in injuries with different degrees of gravity.