Scandal in the "Anti-Fascist Pact"

In the second decade of February, a scandal erupted over the "Anti-Fascist Pact" initiated by United Russia, the signing of which has now acquired the character of a mass political and advertising campaign.

On February 15, 2006, the Izvestia newspaper published an interview with United Russia Vice Speaker of the State Duma Vyacheslav Volodin about this document, which, we recall, was initiated by United Russia at the end of January. According to the online publication Gazeta.Ru, the following passage fell out of the federal “version” of the interview, in which Volodin explains which parties and movements are “not on the path” with the participants in the pact, naming a number of nationalist organizations and movements: “In 90 years ... during the period of so-called wild capitalism, many people found themselves in the situation of that very "little man" ... Against this background, National Bolsheviks, skinheads, Russian National Unity or national minority nationalists grew up. Their ideology is united by one common concept - these are “ours”, and these are “aliens”, which should give way to indigenous nations.These goals are pursued by the RNE in Russia, the Wahhabis in Chechnya, such national-patriotic organizations as the Tatar party "Ittifak", the Tatar club, the Bashkir national center "Ural" and the Union of Bashkir Youth, the Erzyaus national community "Erzyan Mastor", etc."

However, unlike the federal issue, this statement was included in the regional issue of the newspaper published in the Volga region - and immediately aroused the indignation of a number of Bashkir organizations. In particular, the BNC "Ural" stated that it was outraged by the organization's accusations of nationalism, "identifying its goals and objectives with such odious movements as Wahhabism in Chechnya, the RNU of a fascist persuasion" , threatened V. Volodin with a court for libel and demanded his resignation. A number of Bashkir organizations joined this statement.

The incident, however, is that the entire board of "Ural" is in the "United Russia", and its current leader, Rif Isyanov, is a member of the Kalinin district committee (political council) of the party in the city of Ufa. Khamit Abulbakirov, deputy chairman of the Belarusian Scientific Center "Ural", stated that "we joined United Russia back in 2003, because this party is normal, better than the others . " Thus, United Russia has found itself in an extremely uncomfortable position - now it either has to come to terms with the fact that radical ethno-nationalists and people propagating discriminatory views can be its members (BNC Ural is indeed regarded by many experts as a radical nationalist organization, however, like most of these radical ethnic organizations, in recent years its activity and popularity has plummeted), and then the "Anti-Fascist Pact" will finally turn into a farce. Either "ER" must admit that it does not control the "moral character" of the party members and carry out a "cleansing of the ranks", in accordance with the provisions of the "pact", which, apparently, is fraught with great inner-party problems.

On February 22, 2006, on the central square of Ufa, representatives of the BNC "Ural" organized an anti-fascist rally with the aim of "defending the honor of the Bashkir organizations, which the Vice-Speaker of the State Duma of the Russian Federation Vyacheslav Volodin put on a par with Wahhabis and national extremists" , at which a call was made for the resignation of the Vice -speaker from his post. According to preliminary data from the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Bashkortostan, about 6 thousand people (mostly university students) gathered in front of the city administration.

Representatives of the Belarusian National Center intend to file a lawsuit for the protection of business reputation, as well as bring the ideologue of the ruling party to criminal liability for libel.

Sources

• Vinogradov Dmitry. The anti-fascist pact crashed into the "Ural" // Gazeta.Ru. 2006. February 20.
• An anti-fascist rally was held in Bashkiria demanding the resignation of the vice-speaker of the State Duma // IA Regnum. 2006. February 22.