Anti-fascist rally in Petrozavodsk

On February 22, 2009, an anti-fascist rally was held on Kirov Square in Petrozavodsk. The participants expressed indignation at the vigorous activity of neo-Nazi associations in the country, as well as at the increasing cases of attacks motivated by ethnic hatred in Moscow and St. Petersburg. The event was attended by about 20 people, mostly elderly citizens.

According to one of the organizers of the rally, Irina Bondarenko, coordinator of the Karelian regional public organization "Protection and the Future", "over the past four years alone, more than 300 people have died at the hands of the Nazis in Russia, and almost 1.7 thousand more have been maimed."

"In Karelia, fascist slogans and swastikas are also appearing on the walls of houses, leaflets of the Russian National Unity and the Movement against Illegal Migration are being distributed. We need to fight this!" - said I. Bondarenko.

According to the coordinator of the KROO "Protection and Future", law enforcement agencies "for some reason fight more with anti-fascists, banning their rallies, than with those thugs who attack people with a different skin color or eye shape."

The rally was guarded by police officers. The event passed without incident.

Sources

• Power capitulated to the Nazis? // Capital on Onego