The police general and the far right are “friends” and “colleagues”

On February 11, 2009, the SPAS TV channel hosted a round table on the issue of self-defense using firearms. In addition to the TV channel, the discussion was organized by the ultra-right group Russian Image, one of whose leaders, Dmitry Taratorin, heads the channel's political programs directorate. We do not consider the content of the round table discussion, but only the personal composition of the participants (we only note that the attempts at nationalistic statements that broke through among the discussion participants were not developed). The following took part in the discussion:

• Chief of the Licensing and Permitting Service of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation, Major General of Militia Leonid Vedenov;

• Dmitry Taratorin (Russian image);

• Ilya Goryachev (Russian image);

• Ataman of the Orenburg Cossack Host, Cossack General Vladimir Glukhovsky;

• representative of the ultra-right political project "Russian Civil Society", a well-known right-wing activist Dmitry Mikhalkin.

We have repeatedly noted that a number of far-right groups sometimes refuse racist rhetoric in public space and act under social slogans. In this case, the ultra-right activists positioned themselves exclusively as supporters of self-defense with the use of weapons.

As activists of a social nature, representatives of ultra-right organizations directly cooperate with government officials and representatives of law enforcement agencies. And it is not always clear whether officials agree to cooperate with such organizations/activists because of ignorance of their real ideology or it is a conscious contact that allows them to mask their disposition towards right-wing radical groups.

However, in this case it is difficult to imagine that the police general had no idea who he was talking to: at least one of his opponents, Dmitry Taratorin, was the organizer of the Russian March 2008 on the Taras Shevchenko embankment. Nevertheless, Mr. Vedenov not only took part in the round table, but also - the only one, we note, of all the speakers - used the addresses "friends" and "colleagues".

Regardless of how conscious such behavior of the police general was, the very fact of his participation in an event organized by a radical ultra-right group is perceived as a form of support for the latter by law enforcement agencies, legitimizing it in the public space.

Based on materials from right-wing radical sites