Translated material
"Fascist horror story" for elections
On March 3, 2006, Novye Izvestia published an article by Nikolai Mayorov "Special Forces Nazis", which reiterates the thesis that the activities of right-wing radical and even openly neo-Nazi groups in Russia do not meet with practically any opposition from the authorities, because the political elite of Russia hopes use right-wing radicals as a tool of manipulation. References to the "fascist threat", in the author's opinion, are a tried and tested method of creating the illusion among Russians of "choosing the lesser of evils" in order to preserve their own positions of power for this political elite.
At the same time, a selection of the opinions of a number of experts is also presented.
Lev Ponomorev, executive director of the For Human Rights public movement, in particular, points out that for some reason law enforcement agencies are surprisingly lenient towards right-wing radicals: “We see that law enforcement agencies show touching helplessness in the face of the “brown” coven on the Internet. One can only guess: is it caused by the humanly forgivable timidity of the Prosecutor General's Office, the FSB and the Ministry of Internal Affairs in the face of the growing strength of Russian neo-Nazism, or is it some kind of latent sympathy on the part of law enforcement officers for "brown" movements?!"
The head of the Mercator group, Dmitry Oreshkin, believes that the split in society "along the lines of anti-fascism" is very convenient and, most importantly, easy for the authorities: "For this, it is important to build public opinion as follows: either the current government, with all its shortcomings, or these terrible fascists. And even if the government does not demonstrate positive results, voters will support it out of fear of fascism. This is a negative version of voting - only so that not "those". Actually, this was the case in all federal elections - in the Yeltsin era, "if only not communists" voted. Putin was supported , because "if only not the Chechens who blow up houses." Therefore, the authorities now need the nationalists to scare the society properly. We need to arrange a few more marches, slaughter a few more students, and so on ... " .
The same opinion is shared by the leader of the Union of Right Forces, Nikita Belykh, who believes that “the authorities today need fascists ... We need them in order to offer the country a simple choice in the elections in 2007 and 2008: black or white, our own or others , "the right party" or "fascists". That is why, according to the politician, other political technologists have a direct interest in making the fascist threat a reality ... " .
Aleksey Malashenko, director of the Russian Carnegie Center, is more restrained in his assessments. He expresses the opinion that if the nationalists use the government, it will only be an "auxiliary tool", a "safety net" in the elections. "But giving free rein to the nationalists is a double-edged weapon, the most extreme measure. It will be taken only if the popularity of the authorities has completely fallen ," he said.
Sources