“Russian Mayday” 2014 in Moscow

A few actions organized by ultra-right parties and associations took place on May 1, 2014 in Moscow.

On May 1, Moscow nationalists, unable to reach an agreement on a common “Russian Mayday” action, conducted several distinct events.

At noon, the “Russkie” association (“Russians”) organized its traditional march from the metro station “Oktyabrskoe pole” to the “Schukinskaya” station via the Marshal Biriuzov and Marshal Vasilevsky streets. The demonstration started with a significant delay. The columns started moving at 13.00 only, accompanied with the loud barking of neighboring dogs drowning out the participants' slogans. According to observers from the Sova Center, the number of participants was similar to that of last year, amounting to about 500 people.

A few people were arrested right before the start of the event for trying to go through the metal detectors with medical masks in their pockets.

Among those present were Alexander Belov, Dmitry Dyomushkin and Vladimir Ermolaev (“Russians”). The movement “Restrukt!” was responsible for the event's security.

As usual, the procession was headed by representatives of the Union of Orthodox Banner-Bearers (there were four of them this time), two cars and a group of six drummers.

The Russians' column followed, headed by Belov and Dyomushkin. Then came members of the movement “Russkie probezhki” (“Russian joggings”), with banners “Glory to the Heroes!”, “Sport, Nation, Socialism” and “Sport, Family, Socialism”, the movement “Restrukt!”, and neo-pagans. About fifty supporters of Vladimir Istarkhov's “Russian Right-Wing Party” were holding banners with the party's symbol while chanting anti-Western and homophobic slogans. Activists from the movement “Pamyat” (“Memory”) carried a banner with the inscription “Faith! Race! Tradition!”. They were followed by a group of seven people walking under a “National Union” flag. Toward the end of the procession, 22 people carried a huge imperial flag – a permanent feature of ultra-right events. Yet another column of the “Russians” activists closed the march.

Our observers also noticed symbols of the martial arts club “Styag”. Representatives of the “Guestbusters” project were holding a banner which read “Have you signed up for raids?”, with a link to the site migrantam.net.

The marchers were carrying numerous imperial banners, and signs reading “Citizenship is only for ours”, among others. Many of them were dressed in Russian national costumes. It is also worth mentioning that two young women carrying Ukrainian wreaths attended the march.

Among the slogans shouted were the traditional “Peace, labor and May – Gastarbeiter, go away !” ; “Higher and higher, Russian flag, the state is the main enemy” ; “A Russian Moscow for the Russians, cancel 'two-eight-two'” ; “In order not to take up knives, a visa regime is needed” ; “Smoke, drink wine and beer – you're Tel Aviv's accomplice!” (from the column of Istarkhov's supporters); “Prisoners of conscience, you are not forgotten! Free Nikolay Korolyov!”; etc.

Groups of demonstrators from the “Russians” movement also chanted “Russians against abortion, a Russian woman must give birth!”. On the whole, we noticed an increased number of political slogans: “Police, unite with the people, don't serve the freaks!”, “Putin isn't our president, Putin is the president of Tajikistan!”, “It's now dangerous to live without a gun – thank you for that, Putin!”, “My apartment costs as much as a rocket – thank you for that, Putin!”, “Russia groans like a rocket – thank you for that, Putin!”, “Deport irregular migrants, and there will be no crime”, “No to centralization, yes to deportation!”, “Russia from Odessa to Kamchatka!”, “Banderites” off the Russian soil!”…

A meeting was held after the march. However, the concert which had been scheduled after the meeting did not take place, because Denis Gerasimov, leader of the band “Kolovrat”, was arrested by the police sooner that day. Alexander Belov began his speech with this announcement, thus opening the meeting.

Dmitry Dyomushkin declared that he opposes the government's policy, supposedly directed at bringing brotherly peoples into conflict. He added that the demonstrators also protested against recent changes in the attribution of the Russian citizenship.

Other activists also gave speeches at the meeting, such as Roman Zheleznov (also known as “Zukhel”), presented to the audience as the leader of “Restrukt!”, city deputy Alexander Gruzinov (from the “Rodina” party's regional structure), and the leader of the organization “Rubezh Severa” (“North Frontier”) Alexey Kolegov, arrived from the Komi Republic. Vladimir Istarkhov, leader of the “Right-Wing Party” (Pravaya Partiya), called for cancelling the Criminal Code Articles 280 and 282 as well as the list of banned literature, disbanding the police “E-centers” and jailing “the thieves-oligarchs”. At the end of his speech, he raised his hand in a Nazi salute. Alexander Belov closed the meeting by declaring that Russians have a right to self-defense and should “take up arms”.

That same day, a meeting organized by the National-Democratic Party (NDP) and the “human rights center ROD” was held at 3 PM in Gorky Park. It gathered up to 180 people. The action was declared to be in support of the “Russian spring”.

Participants held banners of the NDP, the ROD center and the “Holy Russia” movement, as well as a “Donetsk Republic” flag, another flag with a “Sevastopol” inscription, and an imperial flag, among others. They also carried pictures of the people killed in East Ukrainian cities. Some of the participants held a large Russian flag; at the end of the meeting, it was declared that this flag, along with the money collected during the event, would be donated to the Donetsk Republic.

The action began with a minute of silence in memory of those killed in Ukraine.

Among the people who spoke at the meeting were NDP leader Konstantin Krylov and the ROD Center director Nataliya Kholmogorova, but also Vladimir Tor (head of NDP's executive committee), the publicist Egor Kholmogorov, and the writer Elena Chudinova. On the whole, they all expressed their support to the “Russian spring”, underlined the unity of Russians purposes in Russia and in Ukraine, and called for solidarity with Russians from Ukraine: “Russians must help Russians”.

Other people spoke to the audience as well, such as Alexander Matyushin (representative of the People's Republic of Donetsk), and one of the “Odessa Squads” leaders, Dmitry Odinov, as well as Alexander Svetlichny from the Luhansk region and Alexander Rumyantsev from the Donetsk region.

A resolution was read aloud to conclude the meeting, then the participants released two bunches of balloons in the Russian flag's colors.

Another ultra-right event – the “Russian spring – Russian Unity” march and meeting – took place in Moscow's Lyublino neighborhood. It was organized by the Russian Coalition of Action, the “Great Russia” party, the “People's Militia in the Name of Minin and Pozharsky” (NOMP) and the movement “For the Responsible Authority” (ZOB), among others.

Participants marched along the Pererva Street up to the Soldier of the Fatherland's monument, where the meeting was held.

About 150 people gathered at this event: around 20 members of the Union of Orthodox Banner-Bearers, a column of about 50 “Great Russia” members carrying symbols of the party, and a similar number of NOMP members, as well as representatives of the “Volya” (the “Will”) party, of ZOB and of the Cossacks, and supporters of other movements and organizations.

The Mayday meeting organized by the Liberal Democratic Party of Russia (LDPR) on Pushkin Square had a pronounced anti-Ukrainian nature. It did not gather more than 500 people simultaneously. According to its organizers, however, it was attended by more than 3500 people. The podium there was decorated with slogans such as “Commander-in-Chief, order us to attack”, “Arise, Russian people!”, anti-Ukrainian slogans (“Payback for every drop of Russian blood!”, “Youth of Ukraine, they betrayed you”), and anti-Western ones as well (“Obama, remember Napoleon and Hitler!”). Vladimir Zhirinovsky spoke to the participants, as well as LDPR activist Alexey Didenko. For the most part, both of them maintained an anti-Ukrainian rhetoric, mentioning “banderites” (banderovtsy). Zhirinovsky called for the creation of a small Ukrainian state in the Western part of the country (“Let them eat their belyashi and galushki there”, he declared), while Didenko said Russia's sphere of influence should be extended to Belarus.

At the traditional Mayday meeting organized by the Communist Party of the Russian Federation were also displayed posters with rude racist insults towards the President of the United States Barack Obama.