The face of Russian (white) nationalism

[pampango]

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/20/world/europe/20russia...

Prosecutors contend that his right-wing intellectual pursuits mutated into nationalistic hatred that led him to kill a prominent human rights lawyer and a young journalist two years ago. Mr. Tikhonov initially confessed to the crime, though he now says he is innocent. Testimony in his trial, which includes his wife as a co-defendant, is scheduled to begin on Monday.

Whatever his original path, Mr. Tikhonov has now come to embody the increasing radicalization of Russia’s nationalist movement, his true nature, perhaps, revealed more in the tattoos covering his body, including one on his left shoulder of a cross ringed with swastikas.

Nationalists have also singled out those considered sympathetic to ethnic minorities or opposed to right-wing ideas and deeds. They have killed several members of an anti-fascist group called Anti-Fa, which arose in response to growing xenophobic violence. In the past year, nationalists have been linked to the murders of several police officers and a judge.

“In conversations, he expressed intolerance toward immigrants in Russia and non-Slavs, and expressed racist ideas,” a friend, Sergei Yerzunov, also an avowed nationalist, told investigators, according to court documents. “He said that the main goal, not only of his activities, but of the whole nationalist movement, should be the struggle against ideological opponents.”